Best Short Video App: TikTok vs. YouTube Shorts vs. Instagram Reels vs. Snapchat Spotlight vs. IGTV?

TikTok

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TikTok is a short-form, video-sharing app that allows users to create and share up to 60 seconds videos on any topic. Its creator, Bytedance, runs a different version of the app, Douyin, in its home market, China. Both versions of TikTok offer a wide selection of sounds and song snippets, along with the option to add special effects and filters. You can also add videos created on your phone. The company promotes the app as a video-sharing social network.

A Summary of the TikTok Statistics You Need to Know in 2024:

• TikTok has 689 million monthly active users worldwide;

• The TikTok app has been downloaded over 2 billion times on the App Store and Google Play;

• TikTok ranked as the top most downloaded app in Apple’s iOS App Store for Q1 2019, with more than 33 million downloads.;

• 62 percent of TikTok users in the US are between 10 and 29 years old;

• TikTok has been downloaded 611 million times in India, which is around 30 percent of the app’s total global downloads;

• When it comes to the daily time spent on TikTok, users spend an average of 52 minutes per day on the app;

• TikTok is available in 155 countries, and in 75 languages;

• 90 percent of all TikTok users access the app on a daily basis;

• In less than 18 months, the number of US adult TikTok users grew 5.5 times;

• There was an average number of more than 1 million videos viewed every day in a year.

Features:

1. Watch endless amount of videos customized specifically for you: a personalized video feed based on what you watch, like, and share. TikTok offers you real, interesting, and fun videos that will make your day.

2. Explore videos, just one scroll away: watch all types of videos, from Comedy, Gaming, DIY, Food, Sports, Memes, and Pets, to Oddly Satisfying, ASMR, and everything in between.

3. Pause recording multiple times in one video: pause and resume your video with just a tap. Shoot as many times as you need.

4. Add your favorite music or sound to your videos for free: easily edit your videos with millions of free music clips and sounds. We curate music and sound playlists for you with the hottest tracks in every genre, including Hip Hop, Edm, Pop, Rock, Rap, and Country, and the most viral original sounds.

5. Express yourself with creative effects: unlock tons of filters, effects, and AR objects to take your videos to the next level.

6. Edit your own videos: its integrated editing tools allow you to easily trim, cut, merge and duplicate video clips without leaving the app.

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YouTube Shorts

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YouTube Shorts is YouTube's own short-form video service that lets users create and upload a video of 15 seconds or less on YouTube. The viewing experience for Shorts is quite different than for typical YouTube videos. Since they’re so short, the idea is that you can flip through them quickly and watch a bunch of them in one sitting. Once you open a Short, they start playing one after the next. You can swipe vertically from one video to the next.

YouTube Shorts is basically the platform's attempt to take on TikTok, the hugely popular short-form video app. However, unlike TikTok, YouTube Shorts is not a standalone service. You won't find a YouTube Shorts app in the App Store or on Google Play. YouTube Shorts instead lives within the service's main mobile app. To use it, just open up the YouTube app you already have on your smartphone. Scroll down slightly, and you'll see a "Shorts" section.

YouTube’s short-form video creation tools are only available in India and the U.S. now.  It will continue to add more features and enable more countries over the coming months. In the meantime, creators outside of India and the U.S. can still get started creating Shorts by uploading vertical videos up to 60 seconds and including #Shorts in the title or description to help their system recommend your Shorts across YouTube.

You can use the following creative features to create your own short-form video:

Music & sound: Add a song or use other audio to create your own Short.

Text: Add text after recording a Short and use  Timeline to control when it appears and disappears.

Speed: Choose to accelerate or slow down recording.

Timer: Set the countdown to recording hands-free and choose when to automatically stop recording.

Features:

1. Create: Creation is at the core of short-form video. A multi-segment camera to string multiple video clips together; the option to record with music from a large library of songs that will continue to grow; speed controls that give you the flexibility to be creative in your performance; and a timer and countdown to easily record, hands-free.
2. Watch: YouTube Shorts lets you easily swipe vertically from one video to the next, plus discover other similar short videos.

Instagram Reels

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First launched in Brazil in late 2019, Instagram Reels is now available for over 50 other countries, including the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and Japan, on both iOS and Android.  Reels is an Instagram app feature that allows users to film or upload 15 to 30-second videos that they can edit, sound dub, or add effects to before sharing in their feed, Stories, or Instagram Explore tab.

 Just select Reels at the bottom of the Instagram camera, you’ll see a variety of creative editing tools on the left side of your screen to help create your reel, including:

• Audio: Search for a song from the Instagram music library. You can also use your own original audio by simply recording a reel with it. When you share a reel with original audio, your audio will be attributed to you, and if you have a public account, people can create reels with your audio by selecting “Use Audio” from your reel.

• AR Effects: Select one of the many effects in our effect gallery, created both by Instagram and creators all over the world, to record multiple clips with different effects.

• Timer and Countdown: Set the timer to record any of your clips hands-free. Once you press record, you’ll see a 3-2-1 countdown, before recording begins for the amount of time you selected.

• Align: Line up objects from your previous clip before recording your next to help create seamless transitions for moments like outfit changes or adding new friends into your reel.

• Speed: Choose to speed up or slow down part of the video or audio you selected. This can help you stay on a beat or make slow-motion videos.

Features:

1. It is mobile-only that can only be uploaded on mobile devices.

2. It is  short-form video content in full 9:16 portrait mode.

3. It can be from 15–30 seconds in length.

4. It can be filmed directly within the Reels camera and/or uploaded from your camera roll on your mobile device.
5. It can be filmed as one full take or a series of takes stitched together.

Snapchat Spotlight

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The Spotlight feature on Snapchat is a dedicated tab in the Snapchat app (the last tab on the right) for promoting short viral videos from the Snapchat community, much like TikTok. It is launching in 11 countries: the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, and Sweden. The videos - or Spotlight snaps - surfaced in this section are up to 60 seconds long. Like TikTok, Spotlight’s algorithm operates on similar engagement metrics, including watch time, likes, and shares.

However, unlike TikTok, your Spotlight viral video won’t have a comments section. Other users won’t see your display name unless you’re over 18 and have a public profile. This feature means Snapchat users’ accounts are private by default. Therefore, users can keep their accounts from public view while still posting content in Spotlight. Anyone can submit short-form videos to Spotlight for others to see; you have to tap “Spotlight” when posting to send it to the section.

To get its users generating content for this feature, Snapchat offers daily monetary incentives for the best videos (decided based on the number of views), which seems to be paying off. Over 125 million Snapchat users watched Spotlight videos in February 2024.

Features:

1. Feed users content based on algorithms of their past history and interaction.

2. Users upload Snap videos the same way they would upload snaps to send to their friends or story, by selecting to send to ‘Spotlight'.
3. Users can add text, filters, GIF, Topics (Hashtags), and music to customize their videos .

4. Videos can be up to 60 seconds long, and anyone over the age of 13 can upload them, but users must be 16 or older to make money.

IGTV from Instagram

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IGTV (Instagram TV) is a long-form vertical video channel that is accessible from Instagram. It allows Instagram users to create channels where they can upload videos between 15 seconds and 10 minutes long. Large accounts can upload videos that are up to 60 minutes long.

IGTV is different from your typical video experience. It’s built for how you use your phone and not limited to one minute. As Instagram’s long-form video platform, you can watch even more from the creators you follow and discover video content, personalized for you.

Features:

1. Download and sign in with your Instagram or Facebook account. You can start watching videos right away.

2. Stream videos and clips from creators you follow and discover new ones you might like.

3. Discover other content from influencers and celebrities on IG or search for a specific creator’s channel.

4. Record and upload videos on IGTV instantly with unique tools like Hands-free Capture — perfect for vlogs.

5. The IGTV app is a great complement for the Instagram app, Reels, Boomerang, and Hyperlapse.

TikTok vs YouTube Shorts vs Instagram Reels vs Snapchat Spotlight vs IGTV

The essence of TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, Snapchat Spotlight, and IGTV is the same: providing users with a creative space to create and share short videos with others. The main difference is that TikTok is one short-form video platform, while YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, Snapchat Spotlight is a new feature inside their overarching ecosystem.  

There is no doubt that TikTok is also the superior platform for short video content.

YouTube Shorts is in its infancy. It's missing a lot of the special editing and effects features that are extremely popular on TikTok. But, if anyone can go toe-to-toe with TikTok, the reigning king of short online video, it's the internet's reigning video behemoth, YouTube.

Instagram Reels is TikTok’s rival,  it continues to add new discovery tools and options to make it a more appealing option, in a bid to lure both creators and viewers over to its app instead.

Snapchat Spotlight is very keen on doing what it can to create an experience different from what you find on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. It offers a 1 million dollars a day prize pool available to creators. You can make money on Snapchat’s Spotlight by churning out a lot of high-quality content.

IGTV is more different from these four. It is a long-form video platform that can be regarded as the YouTube of Instagram.