New in underway
short episodes in your youtube videos tab
1 October 2026 · 2 min read
Post on Xthe short version
youtube decides for itself what a short is: anything portrait and three minutes or under goes to the shorts tab, whatever you ask. for a series that is a problem. someone opens your channel, clicks videos, and half the episodes are missing, because the short ones are filed somewhere else.
so underway now sends a short portrait episode to youtube in landscape: you in the middle, on a soft blur of the same shot, with the wide cover. youtube files it as a video, and your videos tab holds the whole series in order.
why keep a series in the videos tab
people who follow a build come back for what happens next. a channel where episode 46 and episode 47 sit side by side, in order, is a series they can follow. a channel that splits them between two tabs by length is two piles.
if you want shorts
shorts reach people who have never heard of you, and that is a fair reason to want them. account, connections, short episodes on youtube has two choices, videos tab and shorts. on the phone it is short episodes as youtube shorts, under post everywhere. a longer episode always goes up as a video either way.
- videos tab, the default: every episode a video, in order, with your cover as the thumbnail.
- shorts: a portrait episode of three minutes or less goes up as a short. youtube does not take a custom thumbnail on a short.
- tiktok and instagram still get the portrait file either way.
why can't youtube just leave my portrait episode as a video?
youtube files any vertical or square upload of three minutes or under as a short, and offers no switch for it. a landscape file is the only way into the videos tab.
does the landscape version change my episode?
no. it is the same cut, fitted into a wide frame with the same shot blurred behind it. the episode in the vault is unchanged.
where to go next
how to build in public on youtube: /how-to-build-in-public-on-youtube.