The comedy landscape on YouTube Shorts has evolved dramatically in 2026, moving away from traditional joke structures toward highly engineered formats designed for maximum retention and rewatch loops.

Hook-first strategy: Creators are focusing on 1.5–3 second hooks to capture attention before viewers swipe away, often combining visual and verbal cues. Retention is king: Rewatch loops, fast pacing, ...

YouTube is changing how it counts views on YouTube Shorts to give creators a deeper understanding of how their short-form content is performing, the company announced on Wednesday. Shorts views will ...

YouTube will soon roll out a major update to its popular Shorts video format that could upend the way creators and viewers engage with content. The update will introduce extra features and give ...

YouTube Shorts are about to get a longer playing time. The video platform’s TikTok-like short-form format will triple the maximum length of videos, boosting it from 60 seconds to 3 minutes. Starting ...

YouTube on Thursday announced a series of updates for its short-form video product, YouTube Shorts. These include the ability for creators to upload videos up to three minutes in length. The company ...

Jake Peterson is Lifehacker’s Tech Editor, and has been covering tech news and how-tos for nearly a decade. His team covers all things technology, including AI, smartphones, computers, game consoles, ...