YouTube has been releasing quite a few features recently to enhance the user experience of both the content creators as well as the ones who consume it. The video streaming giant's focus on Shorts has been quite evident so far and it has now added one more feature to Shorts. YouTube has introduced a text-to-speech video narration feature to Shorts which allows you to add an artificial voiceover. This is the same feature that we have seen on TikTok on many occasions.
You might've seen TikTok videos in which there are startlingly robotic voices promoting something. That exact feature is coming to YouTube and the process to add that voiceover is quite similar to that in TikTok. Once you create the text, you will have to tap on Add Voice icon which will be in the upper-left corner of the screen. You will be able to pick the voice that you want there. At the moment YouTube offers four voices to choose from whereas TikTok offers a few more.
Other New Features That YouTube Is Bringing
YouTube is introducing auto-generated captions that you can add to your videos without needing to use a third-party app like CapCut. Similar to the existing manual text overlay feature in YouTube Shorts, users can customize the captions’ style with various fonts and colors.
Additionally, YouTube has incorporated new Minecraft-themed effects, including a green screen background and a minigame called Minecraft Rush.
These updates reflect the broader trend of video platforms adopting each other's features, much like plants competing for the same sunlight. YouTube often integrates features from TikTok, such as live video previews in the Shorts feed, while TikTok continues to increase the maximum length of its videos. YouTube's strategy to incorporate TikTok-like elements into Shorts appears to be successful, benefiting both the platform and its creators, with one in four creators seeing positive results.