In a blog post published on Wednesday, YouTube announced multiple new features that would be coming to the platform later this year.
YouTube will launch Shorts, its short-video TikTok competitor, as a beta in the U.S in late 2021. Shorts was first released in India and has seen over 3.5 billion views daily, according to chief product officer Neil Mohan.
TikTok has seen huge increase in users and is now forecasting over 1 billion users monthly by the end of the year. Instagram has since taken the platform on with Reels, and YouTube Shorts, first rolled out in September 2020, is next.
It will also be improving navigation, with a new design set to come to the tablet app. YouTube’s website and mobile apps were recently improved with new icons, an updated watch page and more.
YouTube is also introducing a “safer experience” for Kids Mode. New parental controls, including the option to allow specific videos and channels from the main YouTube, could be introduced soon.
No definitive launch dates have been given by the feature are expected to start rolling out in the coming weeks.
