what you need to know
- After recently announcing that YouTube Shorts have exceeded 70B daily views, YouTube is testing Shorts in the recommendations sidebar.
- YouTube Shorts have started appearing in a carousel in recommended sidebars for a limited number of accounts across the web.
- The new Shorts carousel takes up about two to three times the space of a typical YouTube video in the sidebar, and can display up to three videos at a time.
YouTube celebrated the success of YouTube Shorts last week, sharing in a blog post that Shorts are viewed more than 70 billion times a day. YouTube may try to continue growing by placing Shorts in new locations, as it is testing a Shorts carousel in the YouTube Network Recommendations sidebar. Android Police discovered that for some accounts, YouTube is showing up to three Shorts videos at a time in the sidebar instead of regular videos.
The feature is far from widespread use and may be limited to certain accounts in its early stages. Android Central has tested YouTube on several different devices, browsers, and YouTube accounts, but hasn’t found the Shorts carousel yet. In fact, Android Police could only spot the carousel on the account of one of its authors. Expanding Shorts into YouTube’s recommended sidebar may just be a small test and nothing more, so you may never see it.
The new version of YouTube Recommendations shows a traditional video at the top of the list. Below it is the Shorts carousel, which displays up to three videos at a time. Since Shorts videos are significantly taller, they take up the space of about two to three horizontal videos. This can cause visual dissonance because the Shorts carousel is much larger than the horizontal video.
When a sidebar is made up of many smaller videos, it can be easy to overlook. However, this becomes more difficult as the Shorts carousel gets closer to the dimensions of the currently playing video. Maybe that’s the goal, YouTube wants users to stop watching the video they’re playing and watch YouTube Shorts instead.
There doesn’t seem to be a way to hide the Shorts carousel yet. Entering theater mode doesn’t completely eliminate the carousel. Instead, it just moves it below the widescreen video player. For what it’s worth, though, using Cinema mode does make the Shorts carousel less intrusive.
A handful of social media companies are vying to win the video vertical, and competition is fiercer than ever. With a potential TikTok ban in the U.S., alternatives like YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels have a chance to grab market share.
If you have the new YouTube Shorts carousel, you’ll start seeing vertical videos in the recommended sidebar while watching regular YouTube videos. If not, you’ll have to wait and see if this UI element is rolled out more widely.