In an updated Google support document, YouTube announced that it’s experimenting with surfacing longer-form video recommendations in the YouTube Shorts feed, with the goal of increasing the reach and discoverability of longer-form videos by surfacing them in more places across the platform.
YouTube is running this test on a limited number of users, and if your account is among the selected users, you may start seeing longer videos (including videos up to two hours long) in your Shorts feed. The updated documentation states:
We’re running some small experiments on our video watch page and Shorts to help viewers more easily discover content from different channels, formats and lengths. For viewers who are participating in experiments, these new discovery experiences may include different video formats, including longer videos (e.g., the Shorts feed) and a new feed of longer videos where Shorts typically appear.
YouTube created Shorts to compete with short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram’s Reels. YouTube Shorts are kept separate from longer videos on the platform and appear in a dedicated scrollable feed.
While this new experiment will help expand the audience for longer-form video creators, it may create a worse experience for viewers, especially those who watch Shorts. While viewers can swipe away longer-form videos when they appear in their Shorts feed, it can be disruptive.
Additionally, longer content is typically created in landscape orientation, while shorts are created in portrait, so inserting a landscape video into a feed of vertical videos doesn’t make much sense. However, the fact that short videos have a higher audience retention rate also highlights that YouTube sees short videos as an important part of the platform.
The best part is that this is experimental and Google will remove the feature if it receives negative feedback from users testing it.