Videos
YouTube Shorts maker
Shorts is the only one of these formats defined by a rule rather than a placement. Upload something square or taller that runs three minutes or less and YouTube classifies it as a Short automatically. Go wider than 1:1 and it becomes an ordinary video on your channel instead.
What makes something a Short
Since 15 October 2024, any upload with an aspect ratio of 1:1 or narrower, running up to three minutes, is categorised as a Short. There is no separate uploader and no checkbox. That also means the reliable way to keep something out of the Shorts feed is to use a wider ratio such as 16:9, which is exactly how YouTube documents it. Build vertical here and your export satisfies the rule without any extra step.
1080p is the ceiling, so aim at it
Shorts creation caps upload resolution at 1080p, and Google Ads names 1080 by 1920 as the recommended vertical resolution. A 4K export at 2160 by 3840 is therefore wasted here, and worse, it makes a much larger file for no visible gain. Export at standard 1080p for Shorts and save the 4K option for a landscape upload that will actually be watched on a television.
The band along the bottom
Google publishes a 1080 by 1920 safe area reference image and the Shorts editor draws live guides, but it does not state pixel figures. Measured against that reference, roughly 180 pixels off the top, 390 off the bottom, 120 off the right and 60 off the left is the working box, leaving about 900 by 1350. The bottom carries your channel name, the subscribe button, the description and the music attribution. The right rail is like, dislike, comment, share and remix.
Music has its own clock
This is the constraint people trip over. Most tracks in YouTube's library can only be used for up to 90 seconds inside a three minute Short, and some are limited to 60 or 30. That applies to music added in YouTube. Music added here is a track baked into your export, so it is not subject to that, but it is subject to whatever rights the track carries, and the thirteen tracks in the library are provided for use in videos you make with them.
How it works, in three steps
Step 1
Keep it well inside three minutes
Long length here tops out at twelve scenes, which is nowhere near three minutes. The classification rule is a ceiling you will not go near.
Step 2
Export at 1080p, not 4K
Shorts caps at 1080p on upload. The Ultra option exists for landscape uploads and for archive copies, not for this.
Step 3
Check the subscribe band
Play the preview and look at the lowest third. Anything you would not want under a subscribe button and a description needs lifting.
The full walkthrough with screenshots is in the guide Export one video for YouTube, Reels and TikTok.
Limits worth knowing
- Shorts ads only play their first 60 seconds in the feed even when the asset is longer, so the ask must land early.
- A landscape asset served into the Shorts experience gets blurred bars top and bottom, which is why the format switch here is worth using instead.
- Burned in captions sit 120 pixels from the bottom of the vertical frame, close to the subscribe and description band.
- There is no upload connection. You export the MP4 and post it from YouTube Studio or the app.
Questions people ask
Will a vertical video always become a Short?
If it is square or taller and three minutes or less, yes, automatically. That is the documented rule, and it applies to the upload rather than to any setting you choose.
Does the same video work as a normal upload too?
Switch it to landscape and export again. A 16:9 export is the documented way to keep something out of the Shorts feed, and the layout reflows for the wider frame rather than being padded.
How early should the point land?
Very early. In Google's own ad guidance the call to action can surface as soon as three seconds in on some campaign types. Treat the first scene as the whole pitch and everything after it as support.
Do captions help on Shorts?
Shorts is a sound on surface, so captions are not doing comprehension work the way they do in a muted feed. They still help accessibility and quiet viewing, and they are on by default here per scene.
Make your own video
The button opens the generator with this use case already described. Change the wording to match yours, generate, then edit anything you like.
Create a video with OneCraftRelated pages
App promo video maker
App store video is the most tightly specified format in this list, and the two big stores specify it differently. One enforces a hard fifteen to thirty second window and accepts nothing but screen captures of the app itself. The other wants the first ten seconds to be genuine in-app experience and most of the runtime to be representative.
YouTube video maker
The watch page is the one place in this list where 16:9 is the native shape rather than a compromise, where sound is on by default, and where a viewer has already decided to watch before the first frame plays. That changes what the video has to do in its opening seconds.
Instagram video ad
The two Instagram ad placements look similar and behave differently. A Feed ad gets 125 characters of primary text and a viewer who may pause. A Reels ad gets 44 characters, no auto-captioning from Meta, and a viewer who is already moving. The video has to absorb what the copy fields cannot hold.
More finished work of this kind is on the video examples hub.