Skip to main content

Downloaded YouTube Shorts clips will soon include watermarks

YouTube Shorts that are shared to other platforms will soon sport a new feature: a watermark.

On Wednesday, a reply was posted to a YouTube Help Community page titled “New Features and Updates for Shorts Viewers & Creators.” The reply was posted by a Community Manager and contained a product update announcement regarding Shorts that essentially said that watermarks would be automatically added to Shorts that are downloaded and shared to other platforms.

Recommended Videos

The reasoning behind rolling out this new watermark feature was also included in the reply post:

“We’ve added a watermark to the Shorts you download so your viewers can see that the content you’re sharing across platforms can be found on YouTube Shorts.”

But since Shorts is basically YouTube’s answer to the wildly popular short-form video content from a particularly fierce competitor (TikTok), we have to wonder if there’s more to it than that. Are the watermarks just a way to remind viewers on other platforms that more of the same content exists on YouTube? Or is it a way to get creators to prioritize producing more original content rather than relying on cross-platform sharing of the same posts?

Honestly? It could be both. Watermarks do offer a way for platforms like YouTube to promote itself on other apps.

But for TikTok’s competitors, there’s also been a push for more original content on their own platforms. Instagram has already said that it would adjust its rankings to value original content more, meaning original posts would then get more attention than content reposted from other apps. A watermark that reveals that your post was reposted from another app (like YouTube) could then possibly hurt that post in the rankings on Instagram. Watermarks could then, in this case, act as a deterrent for creators wanting to repost content from other platforms.

The new watermark feature for YouTube Shorts is expected to roll out on desktop in the next few weeks and is slated to be available on mobile “over the coming months.”

Anita George
Anita George has been writing for Digital Trends' Computing section since 2018. So for almost six years, Anita has written…
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
YouTube is rolling out handles. Here’s what you need to know
The red and white YouTube logo on a phone screen. The phone is on a white background.

YouTube recently announced that it would be rolling out handles for YouTube channels. Whether you've just heard about them or you already got an email from YouTube saying it's time to choose one, you're probably wondering what they are and how they're different from YouTube channel names.

In this guide, we'll go over what a YouTube handle is and answer a few questions about them so you can better understand what they are and be better prepared to choose one when it's rolled out to you.

Read more
YouTube brings pinch to zoom and video navigation changes to everyone
The red and white YouTube logo on a phone screen. The phone is on a white background.

YouTube is updating its user interface with a slew of changes, and chief among them are the pinch-to-zoom feature and "precise" video navigation.

On Monday, YouTube announced quite a few updates to its viewing experience on mobile and web. Notably, the video-sharing platform said that it was finally "launching pinch to zoom and precise seeking to all users starting today."

Read more