YouTube’s new “Clips” feature lets users share 60-second clips of videos

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  The new clip button. [credit: Ron Amadeo ]

YouTube is testing a feature popular from livestream platforms like Twitch: the ability for viewers and creators to make clips of longer videos, allowing for the sharing of short, bit-sized clips of a video. The feature is currently “in testing” with a small group of channels while YouTube gathers feedback.

Clips have a max of 60 seconds, and can be created by pressing a new “Share Clip” button. From there, users will get a draggable timeline editor to make a clip, name it, and share it via a new URL. This video has clips enabled if you want to try it yourself. For now, the feature only works on a desktop browser, but Android and iOS support is coming “soon.”

Unlike Twitch, which creates a new video from a clip, a YouTube clip link will load the original video with a start and end point on the seek bar, and the ~60 clip will loop between these two points. It seems somewhat similar to the ability to link to a timestamp in a video, just 60 seconds long and on a loop. A big, blue “Watch Full Video” button to the right of the video will start the full video, and since you’re already on the page with the video already loaded, your browser doesn’t actually go anywhere.