Now YouTube takes on TikTok, unveils Shorts Beta in India

Over the next few days in India, YouTube will launch an early beta of Shorts with a handful of new creation tools to test out.

"Shorts is a new way to express yourself in 15 seconds or less," YouTube said in a statement.

This is an early version of the product, but "we're releasing it now to bring you — our global community of users, creators and artists — on our journey with us as we build and improve Shorts," the company added.

The company will continue to add more features and expand to more countries in the coming months.

Shorts will be a new short-form video experience right on YouTube for creators and artists who want to shoot short, catchy videos using nothing but their mobile phones.

Shorts is focused on three main areas: Create, get discovered and watch.

"We're starting to test just a few new tools for creators and artists with our early beta in India: 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".

YouTube recently rolled-out a prominent new spot for the create icon on Android, starting in India.

"We'll continue to expand to iOS devices and in more countries soon. You can also expect more creation features in the coming months", said Chris Jaffe, Vice President of Product Management, YouTube.

Every month, two billion viewers come to YouTube to laugh, learn and connect.

"We encourage any mobile creator or artist to start uploading their existing short videos on YouTube today to start getting discovered," the company said.

YouTube said it has also introduced a new watch experience that lets users easily swipe vertically from one video to the next, plus discover other similar short videos.