YouTube Shorts will also be available on Android Smart TVs

Taking advantage of having its own Smart TV platform as well as the YouTube service, Google only has to make minor adjustments to bring YouTube Shorts clips to Android Smart TVs.

Like TikTok posts, videos shared on YouTube Shorts are almost exclusively viewed on mobile devices (smartphones and tablets), with Google working to remove this limitation in the near future.

The revelation came during a presentation to investors, with Google suggesting it is ready to expand YouTube Shorts coverage to devices that rival services can’t easily cover.

Theoretically, ByteDance can do the same thing with the TikTok app. Practically speaking, the China-based company doesn’t have nearly as much of an argument to motivate Smart TV manufacturers to pre-install the app out of the box. Instead, the fact that the Smart TV firmware is signed by the same company promoting the YouTube Shorts service makes the “convincing” part much easier.

This means that, in the future, users will be able to watch YouTube Shorts clips right from the comfort of their living room, instead of scrolling on their phone.

While TikTok has its own smart TV app, YouTube has an added advantage in that the app comes pre-installed on all smart TVs, regardless of the platform chosen by the TV manufacturer. Compared to TikTok, users will have to actively search for the TikTok app, which is an extra step that the vast majority of users are not interested in.