Seeing new content mixed in with your YouTube Shorts? Here's what's going on

YouTube may still be the internet’s top destination for original video content, but in its two decades of existence it’s also grown to incorporate a whole lot of other kinds of media. In addition to stuff like games, YouTube also hosts posts: blog-like entries allowing creators to connect with their fans without needing to upload a whole new video. Now in YouTube’s latest experiment, posts could start popping up for you in some new places — plus with a new look.

We’ve already got a few different ways of accessing posts. Probably the most intentional is pulling up a creator’s community tab, but you’ll also find posts scattered around your home and subscription feeds. In YouTube’s latest feature experiment, the site shares that it plans to start prominently featuring posts mixed in with Shorts when you’re viewing on the mobile app.

In addition to just seeing a whole lot more posts inserted among Shorts, you also may notice image carousels turning up. YouTube actually got started testing images in Shorts late last year, but it sounds like that effort is about to seriously ramp up, including carousels featuring up to 10 photos you can browse through.

Creators will be able to add music and text overlays to spice those up a little, and hopefully that means they fit in a little more naturally with Shorts video content.

You won’t have any say over whether or not you’re chosen to be included in YouTube’s test, but the company is curious about feedback, so if this does include you and you’ve got an opinion, be sure to let YouTube know. Google says this is just “the first of many updates… as we continue to expand the format,” so it sounds like we’ve got even more posts-related surprises coming down the pike soon.