SAN BRUNO (CALIFORNIA), Oct 5 — YouTube Shorts will now be just a little bit longer, allowing creators to upload videos up to three minutes in length.

In a blog post published on Thursday, YouTube announced several updates for its short-form video platform, including increasing the maximum video length which was previously 60 seconds, from October 15.

"This was a top requested feature by creators, so we’re excited to give you more flexibility to tell your story,” YouTube stated in the post.

"This change applies to videos that are square or taller in aspect ratio, and won’t affect any videos you uploaded before October 15. And we’ll be working to improve recommendations for longer Shorts in the coming months.”

The company also said it was enhancing the Shorts player, introducing new templates, and launching a dedicated Shorts trends page for mobile users.

Users will soon be able to preview comment highlights directly from the feed, without needing to navigate to the comments section.

Creators to easily join the latest trends with templates, pair their clips with popular sounds, and add their own unique touches using the "Remix” function.

Users will also have the option to access YouTube content straight from the Shorts camera, making it easier to remix clips from their favorite videos.

A few weeks ago, YouTube announced that it will begin integrating Google DeepMind’s Veo generative AI video model into YouTube Shorts later this year, saying that it would allow creators to change their video backgrounds or publish stand-alone video clips.

Users will also have the option to customise how much they want to see Shorts in their own feeds.

The platform is introducing an option to "Show Fewer Shorts.”

In the past year, YouTube has launched a new tool that allows creators to turn their existing longer videos into "Shorts”, while also allowing content creators using YouTube Shorts to monetise their short-form videos.

Youtube's efforts are seen as an effort to counter rival TikTok which has been gradually embracing long-form content in direct competition, incentivising creators to start posting horizontal, longer videos in January.

In February last year, TikTok announced it would be extending the maximum video length from three to 10 minutes. Before that, the limit was 60 seconds after initially expanding from 15 seconds.