How to Make Shorts on YouTube That Get Views (2026 Guide)

To make a YouTube Short, open the YouTube app, tap +, choose Create a Short, and record or upload a vertical or square video up to 3 minutes. Add sound and text, write a title, then tap Upload Short. From a computer, any vertical or square video up to 3 minutes uploaded in YouTube Studio becomes a Short automatically.

Small channels have the most to gain. Socialinsider's 2026 study of 69 million short-form videos found that accounts with under 5,000 followers averaged 15,160 views per YouTube Short, against 625 on Instagram Reels and 350 on TikTok. The most common way to waste that reach is technical, not creative: a Short longer than one minute with an active Content ID claim is blocked worldwide, so your music choice matters as much as your hook.

#How to make a YouTube Short on your phone

1. Open the YouTube app and tap the + button at the bottom of the screen.
2. Tap Create a Short. The first time, allow camera and microphone access.
3. Record by tapping or holding the capture button. You can film in several segments; the progress bar at the top shows how much time you have used. To use a clip you already shot, tap the gallery icon and pick a vertical or square video.
4. Tap Add sound to pick a track from the Audio Library or reuse audio from another Short. You can do this before or after recording.
5. Tap the check mark, then add text, filters, a voiceover or timed text overlays.
6. Tap Next, write a title (up to 100 characters), set visibility and whether the video is made for kids, then tap Upload Short.

If the in-app editor feels limited, edit in any phone app, export vertically and upload the finished file through the same gallery button.

#How to upload a YouTube Short from your computer

1. Edit your video in any editor and export it vertical (9:16) or square, 3 minutes or shorter.
2. Open YouTube Studio and click Create, then Upload videos.
3. Add the title, description and audience setting, then publish now or schedule it.

YouTube classifies the video as a Short from its shape and length alone. You do not need a special setting or the #shorts hashtag. The desktop route has one extra advantage: verified accounts can upload a custom Short thumbnail there, which the phone app does not allow.

#YouTube Shorts specs at a glance

The title, channel name and buttons sit over the bottom and right of the frame, so keep text and faces away from those edges. You can check a frame with the free YouTube Shorts safe zone checker.

#How to plan a Short that hooks viewers

The feed is crowded: Alphabet said over 10 million channels were publishing Shorts each day as of March 2026, competing for more than 200 billion daily views. A Short that wins has one clear idea and a reason to stop scrolling in the first second.

Start with research, not the camera. Scroll the Shorts feed in your niche and note three things: which formats get views (tutorials, reactions, before-and-after, lists), which sounds repeat, and which angle nobody has taken yet. The goal is to adapt a proven format to your topic, not copy a video. If a trending sound is used for dance clips, ask how it would work as a 20-second tutorial or a sketch for your audience.

#Use a hook, story, payoff structure

Every strong Short is a micro-story with three parts:

• Hook (1 to 3 seconds): a bold claim, a question or a striking visual. "Here's how I make a smoothie" loses; "You've been making smoothies wrong your whole life" holds.
• Story (5 to 20 seconds): deliver what the hook promised, fast. Show the technique, tell the joke, reveal the fact. Cut anything that does not move it forward.
• Payoff (3 to 5 seconds): the reveal, the punchline or the result, plus at most one short call to action.

#A script template you can copy

HOOK (on-screen text + first line):
"You've been making smoothies wrong your whole life."

STORY (3 quick beats, one shot each):
1. Liquid goes in first, not last.
2. Frozen fruit, never ice.
3. Blend low, then high.

PAYOFF:
Show the smooth pour. "Follow for more kitchen fixes."

Swap in your topic and keep the shape. For more opening lines, browse these TikTok hooks that stop the scroll; they transfer well to Shorts. If you prefer to start from a draft, the free YouTube Shorts script generator writes one from a topic.

#Say less than you think

In Revid's analysis of 176,367 TikToks with 1,000+ likes posted between October 2025 and October 2026, videos with under 40 characters of speech had a median of 123K views and 20.2% passed 1 million, while videos with talking throughout (300+ characters) had 68K and 11.9%. This is TikTok data, and it describes videos that already performed well rather than proving cause, but the lesson carries over to Shorts: let visuals and on-screen text carry the story and keep the voiceover tight. The full method is in our study on what makes a TikTok go viral.

#How long should a YouTube Short be?

A YouTube Short can be up to 3 minutes long, but the right length is the shortest version that still delivers the payoff. For most ideas, 15 to 45 seconds is a sensible starting range; go longer only when the story needs it.

Length itself matters less than people assume. In the same Revid TikTok study, every length bucket from under 15 seconds to 10 minutes had a median between 58K and 76K views. Videos under 15 seconds had the lowest median (58K) but the most shares per view (1.41 per 100), and 61 to 90 second videos reached 70K. Treat it as a TikTok signal, not a YouTube rule: retention, not runtime, decides how far a Short travels.

Two YouTube rules do push you toward shorter Shorts. Past one minute, any Content ID claim blocks the video worldwide, and most Audio Library songs stop at 90 seconds.

#How to film and edit Shorts on your phone

Your phone is the right camera: it shoots 9:16 natively, and raw, phone-shot Shorts fit the feed better than cinematic footage. Get the basics right:

• Light: face a window. Natural light removes most grain.
• Audio: a wired or wireless earbud mic beats the phone's built-in mic. Record in a quiet room.
• Framing: keep your subject centered and in the upper two-thirds, clear of the caption and button areas.
• Background: plain or relevant to the topic, never cluttered.

Then edit for pace:

1. Trim hard. Cut breaths, pauses and repeated takes. Every second must earn the next one.
2. Add captions or text overlays. Many people watch with sound off; bold on-screen text keeps them. Revid's AI caption generator adds synced, animated captions automatically.
3. Change the shot when the idea changes. A new angle, a zoom or a cutaway resets attention.
4. End where the loop works. If the last frame flows back into the first, replays come naturally.

#How to title, tag and time your Short

Titles. Write a short, specific promise with the keyword your viewer would search: "This 1 trick makes better coffee" beats "My morning coffee". You have 100 characters, but the feed shows far fewer, so put the hook first. YouTube's Test and Compare feature does not work on Shorts, so pick the title deliberately.

Hashtags. #shorts is optional. Add 3 to 5 specific tags such as #coffeehacks or #homebarista. For comparison, in Revid's TikTok study, 4 hashtags had the best median (77K views) while 9 or more had only 16K: a few precise tags beat a wall of them.

Description. One or two sentences with your main keywords help search and suggested placement. The same search engine optimization basics explained by OneNine apply on YouTube: match the words people actually type.

Timing. In YouTube Studio, open Analytics, then the Audience tab, and check when your viewers are on YouTube. Schedule Shorts just before those peaks so early viewers arrive fast.

#How to make YouTube Shorts with AI in Revid

If filming every day is the bottleneck, Revid's AI YouTube Shorts generator turns an idea, a script or a link into a finished vertical video:

1. Type an idea, paste a script or link, or start from Revid's library of about 2.77 million real short-form videos with their engagement data and pick a format that already works in your niche.
2. Revid writes the script and builds scene-by-scene visuals (stock footage, AI images or AI video from models such as Seedance 2.5, MiniMax Hailuo H3, Wan 3.0 and Google Veo 3), with a voiceover in 70+ languages, synced captions and music.
3. Fix any scene in the timeline editor, export in 1080p or 4K, and publish or schedule straight to YouTube.

Already have long videos? The YouTube clip maker cuts them into vertical Shorts. Sign-up is free and new accounts get free credits to try it, no credit card needed; regular creation then uses the credits of a paid plan, from $39/month.

Two YouTube rules apply to any AI workflow. AI tools are allowed in monetized videos when the result shows your creative vision, but mass-produced template content is not monetizable, so add your own angle, research or voice. And realistic AI scenes must be disclosed with the AI use setting in YouTube Studio; since May 2026 YouTube also labels undisclosed photorealistic AI automatically. Disclosure alone does not limit reach or earnings.

#How to use Shorts analytics to improve the next one

Open YouTube Studio, go to Content, then the Shorts tab, and click a Short's analytics. Since August 24, 2026, YouTube counts a view as soon as a video starts playing, so raw view counts look generous; engaged views are what count for monetization.

Compare your top five Shorts side by side: same format, same hook style, same length range? That pattern is your next brief.

#Can you make money from YouTube Shorts?

Yes, through the YouTube Partner Program. Today, ad revenue sharing requires 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 public watch hours in the last 12 months or 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. Watch hours from the Shorts feed do not count toward the 4,000 hours.

Shorts feed ad revenue is pooled each month and split among monetizing creators by their share of engaged Shorts views in each country. You keep 45% of your allocation, whether or not you used music; music only shrinks the pool.

The rules change on February 1, 2027:

• New applicants need 1,000 subscribers plus 8,000 watch hours in 365 days or 20 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days. Channels already in the program are not affected.
• Earning Shorts ad and Premium revenue in a given month will require at least 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. Channels below that keep their long-form earnings.
• Current members must accept the updated terms in YouTube Studio by January 31, 2027.

Set expectations honestly. AIR Media-Tech's September 2026 analysis of 274 channels found Shorts RPM was 3% to 14% of long-form RPM in almost every niche, US Shorts RPM was $0.328 per 1,000 views, and for most channels Shorts brought in less than 2% of revenue. Shorts are best used to win new viewers who then watch your long videos. AIR Media-Tech's study of 18,000 channels found the best results when Shorts made up 25% to 40% of uploads. Official figures are collected on our YouTube Shorts statistics page, Lenostube keeps a broader roundup of YouTube stats and trends, and the marketing agency AWISEE publishes commentary on social video growth at awisee.com. For more format ideas, see our guide to creating YouTube Shorts that go viral.

#FAQ

#Do I need to add #shorts to my video?

No. YouTube automatically treats any square or vertical video up to 3 minutes as a Short. Adding #shorts does no harm, but specific topic hashtags do more for discovery.

#Can I turn a long YouTube video into Shorts?

Yes. Cut a self-contained moment, reframe it to 9:16, add captions and upload it as a Short, or paste the link into a tool such as Revid's YouTube clip maker to get vertical clips automatically. Keep each clip under one minute if it contains any claimed audio.

#Can you make YouTube Shorts without showing your face?

Yes, and faceless formats can perform well. In Revid's TikTok study, faceless videos had a median of 114K views versus 67K for one person on camera; the same formats (screen recordings, voiceover tutorials, AI visuals) work on Shorts.

#How many Shorts should I post?

Post as often as you can keep quality high, and if you also make long videos, aim for Shorts to be 25% to 40% of your uploads, the mix that performed best in AIR Media-Tech's 18,000-channel study.

#Do I need a good camera to make Shorts?

No. A recent smartphone, window light and a cheap external mic are enough; viewers on Shorts reward clear ideas and clean audio far more than cinematic footage.