YouTube has finally rolled out a short-form video-streaming service on its platform in the United States after beta testing in India as it looks to better compete with rival TikTok in the hugely popular category.


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The service, Shorts, lets users record mobile-friendly vertical videos that can be spiced up with special effects and soundtracks pulled from a music library.


"Starting today and over the next several weeks, we`ll gradually expand our Shorts beta to the U.S.," YouTube had said earlier. 


On YouTube’s official blog, Todd Sherman, the product lead for YouTube Shorts, said, “Since introducing our initial beta in India, we’ve already started to see creators having fun with Shorts, and the number of Indian channels using our creation tools has more than tripled since the beginning of December alone. People are also watching more and more Shorts around the globe - the YouTube Shorts player has now surpassed 6.5 billion daily views globally.”


YouTube had rolled out the feature in India in September last year after TikTok was banned in one of its biggest markets. Shorts currently records more than 6.5 billion daily views globally, YouTube said.


In the blog, Sherman stated that for the Shorts beta in India, there were “foundational creation tools, like a multi-segment camera to string multiple video clips together, the ability to record with music, control speed settings, and more”.


Besides that, the company has added features, “like the ability to add text to specific points in your video”. Users will be able to sample audio from other Shorts, too, so that they can remix it into their own creations.