The TikTok rival platform YouTube Shorts is introducing a watermarking tool. As a result, when producers upload a short video to YouTube, they won’t be able to take it and share it on other platforms without adding the YouTube watermark.
Yesterday, a help thread for Shorts watchers and producers that tracks feature improvements was updated with information on the update from a YouTube community manager. The message says:
You’ll now notice a watermark on your downloaded material if you’re a creator who downloads your Shorts from YouTube Studio to distribute on other platforms. In order for your viewers to know that the video you are sharing across platforms is from YouTube Shorts, we have included a watermark to the Shorts you download. On desktop, this will be implemented over the following weeks, and we’ll extend it to mobile in the ensuing months.
The platform wants to be acknowledged as the source when producers utilise its technology to produce a video. Since its inception, TikTok has operated in the same manner, adding its distinctive red and blue watermark to all videos downloaded from the app. Since TikTok’s watermark includes the creator’s handle, viewers who see the downloaded video on another app will be gently redirected to TikTok. Additionally, the watermark bounces about the screen, making it impossible to simply trim a video to remove it.
Instagram Reels, which is owned by Meta, has advanced things in an effort to compete with TikTok. Instagram has made it clear that material with a watermark from another app will be suppressed by its algorithm. In order to publish the same material across many platforms without worrying about watermarks, professional artists should edit films using third-party tools from businesses like Adobe.
