YouTube does not want you to share Shorts on rival social media platforms without taking credit for it, and it becomes apparent with a new update. The video-sharing app has now added watermarks to its short videos to discourage cross-platform sharing on TikTok or Instagram.
Unlike TikTok or Instagram, YouTube has not been adding watermarks to its videos, but that changes today. YouTube has announced through a support thread that it will add watermarks to its Shorts once they are downloaded for sharing on other platforms. The change is already live on the desktop version of YouTube and it will arrive on mobile phones in a few months.
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Creators on social media prefer sharing their content across multiple platforms to maximize engagement. Instead of having to start from scratch each time, it makes more sense to share the same video on other platforms. However, YouTube’s new update aims to bring people back to the original source of their favorite content.
TikTok already does it with its own watermarks and these also show the creator’s username so you can easily find the original version on TikTok. YouTube’s watermarks might work the same way, though the details are still unclear.
However, if you are looking to work around social media watermarks, you can simply use third-party video editors like Lama Fusion or Adobe After Effects and export the videos separately on each platform. This way, you can gain followers on each of your platforms instead of piling them all into one space.
This may not be feasible for everyone and most creators are likely going to continue making content the same way as before, watermarks or not.
