YouTube Shorts Coming to Smart TVs, YouTube TV to Get Mosaic Mode: Report

YouTube Shorts — the short-form vertical video sharing platform from YouTube — is coming to smart TVs, according to a report. Meanwhile, the company is said to be working on a Mosaic Mode for YouTube TV that will allow users to view up to four videos at the same time. YouTube employees are said to have shared these plans at an internal partner event with hardware manufacturers a month ago. YouTube TV was previously updated with 5.1 surround sound support on Android TV, Google TV, and Roku devices in June, while the iOS app was previously updated with picture-in-picture support.

As per a recent report by Protocol, the company is looking to update YouTube TV with a new feature called Mosaic Mode. It is expected to “allow subscribers to watch up to four live feeds at the same time by dividing the TV screen into quadrants.” Additionally, users will also be able to browse playlists and albums on YouTube Music and add them to their library directly from the smart TV screen, as per the report.

As mentioned earlier, YouTube is also said to be bringing Shorts, which are vertical videos available on the mobile app, to smart TVs. The report refers to a mock-up slide presented to the audience of Google's partner event which showed a vertical video at the centre of the screen carrying the title of the video along with the name of the song used in the clip as well as a quick access to up-and-down thumbs off to the side.

According to the report, employees at YouTube shared these upcoming features at an internal partner event with hardware manufacturers a month ago. They are expected to roll out in the coming months, but Google is yet to officially announce details of these features.

YouTube TV previously added receiving 5.1-channel surround sound support on Android TV, Google TV, and Roku devices in June. YouTube also rolled out support for picture-in-picture mode for its YouTube TV app on iOS, earlier this year.