After debuting its TikTok clone in September 2020, YouTube released Shorts in over a hundred countries in July last year. Much like TikTok, YouTube Shorts allowed users to create short video clips up to 60 seconds in length within the YouTube app and it offered a couple of handy features, like the ability to add text to specific parts of the video, automatic captions, basic filters, and color correction.
An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.
Shortly after its launch, YouTube rolled out a bunch of additional features for Shorts, like the ability to sample audio from YouTube videos, and even set up a $100 million fund for creators to promote the new platform. YouTube is now working on another new feature for Shorts, which will let you add voiceovers to your videos from within the app.
We have spotted new strings related to the voiceover feature in a teardown of YouTube for Android version 17.04.32_beta. The strings reveal that the feature will add a dedicated voiceover button to the YouTube app, allowing users to record a voiceover without requiring a third-party video editor.
<string name="shorts_trim_edu_text">Drag to adjust video</string>
<string name="shorts_trim_segment_import_done_text">Done</string>
<string name="shorts_voiceover_icon_description">Voiceover</string>
<string name="shorts_voiceover_title">Voice Over</string>
Currently, the YouTube app on Android only lets you add sounds from YouTube's library to Shorts. If you want to add a custom audio clip, you have to record it separately and then add it to the video using a third-party video editor. While YouTube's support page says that you can record 15-second audio clips to add to your video, the app doesn't offer any such option. The upcoming voiceover feature aims to address this issue.
At the moment, the voiceover feature is not live in the latest YouTube beta for Android and YouTube hasn't shared any official information about it. We expect to learn more once the feature rolls out with a future beta release.
Are you a YouTube Shorts creator? If so, what's your take on this upcoming voiceover feature? Do you think it's a useful addition or would you much rather use a third-party app to add custom voiceovers to your Shorts? Let us know in the comments section below.