YouTube Expands Text-to-Speech for Shorts, Announces New Teen Safety Initiative

YouTube has announced an expanded release of its text-for-speech feature for Shorts, while it’s also launching a new series to help promote safer internet use among teens for Safer Internet Day as part of its latest feature update.

First off, YouTube’s bringing text-to-speech to more Shorts creators, with YouTube’s version of the popular audio overdub option now available on iOS, in addition to Android.

YouTube launched text-for-speech on Android last July, providing another option to present key details in your clips. And now, more Shorts creators will be able to include an automated voiceover on their videos. 

As per YouTube:

“With text-to-speech, creators can add text, have it narrated, or spoken out loud in the short, and choose the start and endpoint of the visual text. There are four voices creators can choose from when picking a narration.”

You’ve no doubt heard many robot-voiced clips, with a familiar stiff voice that will (often awkwardly) read out whatever text you include. And now, you can use the same in Shorts on both Android and iOS.

YouTube offers four voice options for its automated voiceovers at this stage.

YouTube’s also announced a new partnership with the JED Foundation (JED), which is a nonprofit group that aims to provide life-skills to help teens deal with stress and anxiety.

“Together with JED and the team at Room 1041, we’ve developed a series of engaging and evidence-based mental health videos for teens featuring top YouTube creators, with the goal of equipping them with the knowledge and tools to understand their mental health, cope with challenges, and seek help when needed.”

As part of Safer Internet Day, YouTube’s launching the first two videos in the new series on the JED Foundation’s YouTube channel.

Finally, YouTube’s also updating its profile cards on Studio mobile, in order to “give them the same look and feel as other updates across the app.”

As you can see in this example, YouTube’s updated profile cards will give you a quick overview of that user via a pop-up within the Studio display. YouTube says that the functionality of the cards remains the same, but the format will better align with the broader Studio presentation.

You can learn more about YouTube’s latest feature updates here, and its partnership with the JED Foundation here.