Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Social Media
  3. News

This beloved TikTok feature is coming to YouTube Shorts

Anita George
By

YouTube Shorts, the video-sharing website’s answer to TikTok videos, is getting a new comment reply feature and with it, looks more like its wildly popular competitor.

On Thursday, the new feature was announced via an update to a YouTube Help thread titled “New Features and Updates for Shorts Viewers & Creators.” The announcement was posted by a TeamYouTube community manager.

Series of three illustrations of mobile devices displaying the new YouTube Shorts video reply feature.
YouTube Help/YouTube

According to the announcement, YouTube creators on iOS can now feature viewer comments in their Shorts videos as a way to reply to that comment. Sound familiar? That’s because you’ve likely seen a similar feature on TikTok which allows creators to create a video reply to a viewer comment that often includes a sticker that displays the comment the creator is replying to. As you can see in the above illustration provided by YouTube, the video-sharing platform is adding a similar video reply feature to Shorts.

Recommended Videos

The new Shorts video reply feature is also expected to work for viewer comments on Shorts or videos.

Related

At this time, the Shorts video reply feature is only available on iOS and will continue rolling out to all iOS Shorts creators “in the coming weeks.” Creators who use Android will also be getting the feature but the announcement did not mention when exactly that would happen, just that the launch would be “down the road.”

If you’re a creator using an iOS device here’s how to access the new feature once its available to you (according to YouTube’s announcement):

Navigate to the watch page of one of your videos or Shorts and then pick a comment you want to reply to and then select the Reply icon (which looks like a speech bubble) on that comment.  Then select the Create a Short icon, which looks like an S-shaped outline that contains a play button and a plus sign icon.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Anita George
Anita George
Computing Writer
Anita has been a technology reporter since 2013 and currently writes for the Computing section at Digital Trends. She began…
YouTube relaxes rules around swearing and demonetization
YouTube

Potty-mouthed YouTubers will be delighted to learn that the streaming site has relaxed its rules around swearing and demonetization.

The change comes after a more restrictive policy introduced in November caused an uproar among YouTube creators, especially the ones who like to use colorful language in their videos. The harsher rules introduced then resulted in profanity-laced content being demonetized, a situation that had serious consequences for those trying to make a living out of creating YouTube content.

Read more
Celebrate our 1,000,000 YouTube subscriber milestone with us and win!
YouTube Subscriber Giveaway

Digital Trends 1,000,000 YouTube Subscriber Giveaway!

We did it! On November 27, 2022, the Digital Trends YouTube channel reached a major milestone: 1 million subscribers! We’ve been counting down for weeks, and now that the moment has finally arrived, we’re ready to celebrate with those who helped us get here (you!) by giving away more than $4,500 in prizes!

Read more
What is Ambient Mode on YouTube?
The red and white YouTube logo on a phone screen. The phone is on a white background.

YouTube recently announced a number of changes to its video-watching interface. One of these changes is a new feature known as Ambient Mode.

In this guide, we'll go over exactly what Ambient Mode on YouTube is and show you how to enable or disable it.
What is Ambient Mode on YouTube?
Ambient Mode is basically a lighting effect that surrounds a given YouTube video with a soft, glowing light that usually reflects the colors featured in the video itself. The effect kind of resembles the glow of a television screen in a room where the lights are off (which YouTube has said was the inspiration for the effect). YouTube also said that Ambient Mode is supposed to make the video-watching experience of its dark mode "more immersive." Ambient Mode was officially announced in late-October 2022 and is available on the web, Android, and iOS.

Read more