---
title: 'YouTube’s NEW Shorts Algorithm Change Explained for 2026 (GROW MORE SUBSCRIBERS FAST)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=qiOl6GIfDHg'
video_id: 'qiOl6GIfDHg'
date: 2026-06-15
duration_sec: 0
---

# YouTube’s NEW Shorts Algorithm Change Explained for 2026 (GROW MORE SUBSCRIBERS FAST)

> Source: [YouTube’s NEW Shorts Algorithm Change Explained for 2026 (GROW MORE SUBSCRIBERS FAST)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=qiOl6GIfDHg)

## Summary

The video explains a new YouTube Shorts algorithm update and provides actionable tips to optimize settings, thumbnails, content strategy, and video length for increased views and subscribers.

### Key Points

- **Algorithm Update Overview** [0:00] — YouTube Shorts released a new algorithm update that changes everything; creators need to adjust upload settings, content type, and post-upload actions.
- **Optimize Upload Settings** [0:26] — Ensure subtitles are enabled and contain keywords matching the title to improve metadata and audience targeting. Also, fill in the related video field to link to other content.
- **Enable Multiple Language Translations** [1:52] — Under languages, enable auto-translation to multiple languages (e.g., Russian, Spanish, Portuguese) to increase reach to non-English speakers.
- **Optimize Thumbnails** [2:23] — Custom thumbnails are now crucial because Shorts appear in Google search, browse features, and LLMs like ChatGPT. Use a mobile device to select a custom thumbnail frame.
- **Find Breakout Videos with AI** [4:08] — Use VidIQ's Outliers feature to find top-performing content in your niche. Sort by highest views per hour to identify trending topics.
- **Optimize Old Content** [5:29] — Use VidIQ's optimize feature to review underperforming videos and get title, SEO, and content suggestions to improve reach.
- **Create Multiple Videos per Topic** [6:31] — For a good topic, make 2-3 different videos because you never know which one will go viral. Example: multiple videos on 'YouTube settings' got varying views.
- **Match Video Length to Topic** [8:25] — Use YouTube Analytics > Trends to see the ideal video length for your topic. For 'YouTube Shorts algorithm', successful videos are 7-21 seconds; for 'ChatGPT hacks', 40-60 seconds.

### Conclusion

Implementing these five changes—optimizing settings, thumbnails, using AI tools, creating multiple videos per topic, and matching video length—can significantly boost views and subscribers on YouTube Shorts.

## Transcript

YouTube Shorts just released a brand new
algorithm update that completely changes
everything. You need [music] to change
the settings that you're using when you
go to upload your content, the type of
content that you're making, and what
you're doing after your content stops
getting views. And by the end of this
video, you're going to know about all
these changes and how you could use them
to get more views, get more subscribers,
and increase your odds of you going
viral. In fact, I just helped this
creator, this creator, and this creator
gain over 100,000 subscribers on YouTube
simply by implementing the tips that I'm
about to share with you. Change number
one is you need to make sure that you
optimize the settings when you go to
upload something on YouTube Shorts. And
if you've messed up any of this before
in the past, you need to go through on
all of your past Shorts and fix this.
Okay, so those first settings that you
need to make sure are turned on, I'm
going to show you in this video right
here. So, the first one that you need to
make sure are turned on going to be
these two on the right-hand side right
here. In fact, it's going to be two
settings, not one. And then we're going
to go through another one. So, first
right here is subtitles. You want to
make sure that when you click into this,
that this has the subtitles from your
content right here. Because if this
doesn't have subtitles in here, one,
it's actually going to decrease the
amount of people that YouTube end up
showing your video to. And two, it's
actually going to affect your metadata.
And ideally, what you want to find is in
the first sentence of your subtitles
right here, you want to make sure that
if you actually look at this, we can see
viral on TikTok. And then if we come
over to the title of the video, you want
to make sure it has the same exact
keywords. Same exact thing here, viral
on TikTok. And essentially, what that's
doing is my title is then combining with
my subtitles in order to tell YouTube
what the video is actually about. And
then YouTube shows the content ideally
to the correct audience. In addition to
that, you want to make sure that you
have the related video filled out right
here. Because you want people that watch
this video to go watch another video.
For example, this one was about going
viral on TikTok. So, I might want to
link this video to another video about
the same exact topic. We come over here,
type in viral on TikTok, we can see that
I have a bunch of other content here. I
might want to link it to this video. So,
now they're going to watch my short-form
video and then they'll watch our
long-form video. The other setting that
you need to make sure is enabled is if
you come under languages right here, you
want to make sure you have all of these
different language published right here.
We can see that I have tons of them.
It's being translated to Russian. It's
being translated to Spanish, Portuguese,
Polish, Korean, Japan, Italian. It's
being translated to all these different
languages. And what this ends up doing
is actually increase the odds that my
content gets shown to more people than
just people that speak English. And this
is one of the biggest hacks, one of the
biggest tricks right now to getting more
views on YouTube Shorts.
Change number two is you need to make
sure that you're optimizing your
thumbnails before anything else. Because
in the past, 90% of views came from the
Shorts feed for YouTube Shorts, but this
is now all completely changing. A lot of
that reach is now coming from LLMs like
ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok. In addition to
that, your content is showing up inside
of Google search results and on browse
features, which is going to be the
homepage and search results on YouTube,
which makes your thumbnail more
important than ever before. Because
guess what? If your thumbnail's not
optimized, somebody's not going to click
and then as a result, you're not going
to get the views that you deserve. And
the YouTube algorithm's going to say,
"Hey, nobody's clicking on this
creator's videos. Let's not push out his
channel." So, to prove to you just how
powerful adding a custom thumbnail is, I
actually want to show you this. So, if
we look up how to add a thumbnail to
YouTube Shorts and we come over here, we
can see that an ad gets shown and then a
bunch of Shorts content. Now, if we look
at the Shorts that are getting the most
views, 1.2 million, 400,000, 200,000,
1.3 million, 500,000. So, the one that
got the most views is this one right
here and we can see that the reason that
it got the most views, and this is
actually my video, is because I have
this arrow actually pointing here. And
we can see this isn't the actual way
that the video starts off because I
added this custom thumbnail right here.
Now, in order to do this, you need to do
this from a mobile device. You're going
to upload your YouTube Short from a
mobile device and you're literally going
to see what you actually see in this
thumbnail right here. You click on that
pencil and then you can choose any part
of the video in order to actually turn
that into the thumbnail. If we look
right here, they did something pretty
similar to mine. And guess what? That's
why these two videos are getting the
most views under here. This one is a
custom thumbnail, not as good though.
This one isn't a custom thumbnail. This
one isn't a custom thumbnail. That's why
those videos didn't get as many views as
they could have gotten if they edited in
a custom thumbnail. So, please make sure
that you are adding these in. It will
increase your reach. And change number
three is you need to make sure that
you're going through and actually
finding breakout videos inside of your
niche for you to be able to recreate
them. And there's a new AI tool that
makes this incredibly easy to do. Now,
the way that you can actually go and do
that is using VidIQ. So, if we come over
to VidIQ right here and we come over
into outliers, we can see right here
that this is automatically set to my
niche and it's showing me outliers for
my niche. Or if I wanted to, I could
search for things. For example, maybe
I'm looking up TikTok algorithm and we
can see this is then going to find me
outliers. And we can see that it can
find me outlier long-form content. It
can find me outlier Shorts right here.
It could go through and find me outlier
thumbnails right here. And it can
actually find me breakout channels. And
what you're going to notice here is that
this will actually go through and show
you which channels are getting the most
views in your niche that are breakout
channels, which thumbnails are working
the best for whatever topic you are
uploading on, what Shorts are working
the best, and what long-form content.
And what you should ideally be doing is
using this every single time that you go
to actually look for something. And what
I would do is sort this by highest views
per hour. And this is going to reveal to
you what topics are getting the most
views for whatever you want to actually
post about or whatever your niche is so
that you actually know exactly what to
post. In fact, using this and making
this one change could be the difference
between you getting millions of views or
you being stuck with low views on
YouTube Shorts. In addition to that
though, you also want to use this
optimize feature right here. This is
going to allow you to go through with
your long-form content or with your
Shorts content and actually optimize all
of your videos. For example, let's say
this video didn't get as many views as I
thought it should get, we could actually
click on this right here and it will go
through and give us different title
suggestions. It'll give us different SEO
suggestions. It'll actually review our
video and tell us what we could have
changed about the content. And this
right here is the biggest secret to
actually doing what the YouTube Shorts
algorithm wants. Because you need to be
looking at these outlier videos. You
need to be optimizing all of your old
content. You could go through and do
this for all of your content to
skyrocket your reach.
Now, the best part about VidIQ is you
can go to the pinned comment below and
get started with it today for only $1. I
would have never gained over 800,000
subscribers if it wasn't for VidIQ. And
this is going to be your secret weapon
too because they release new features
literally every single week and they
make it way easier for you to grow
faster on YouTube, go viral on YouTube.
And again, I have an exclusive offer at
the pinned comment below where you can
get started today for only $1. It's an
absolute no-brainer if you're serious
about growing on YouTube. Change number
four is you need to change the strategy
that you're currently implementing on
YouTube. When you come across a video
idea that's actually worth making, you
should ideally be doing two to three
different videos on it and not only
relying on one video because it might be
your hook, might be your length, might
be something else that actually leads to
you getting more views on YouTube. In
fact, I want to prove this to you by
showing you how I do this on my own
channel. Okay, so here's how I'm
actually doing this. Let's say that we
come over to my Shorts and we type in
something like YouTube setting. Guess
what we are going to see? We're going to
see this video, 3,000 views, 8,000,
16,000, 15,000, 900,000. If we scroll
down, 2.9 million, 180,000, 16,000 on
the same exact topic right here. I've
uploaded several videos and several of
them have gone viral. Or maybe we come
over here and we type in YouTube
algorithm. What are we going to notice?
4,000 11,000 5,000 120,000 91,000
33,000. You don't get to decide which
video you make on a topic is going to
actually go viral. But what you do get
to decide is how many times you actually
swing at that pitch, aka that video
topic. Let's come over here, best time
to post. What are we going to see? We
are going to see that again several
videos. 3,000, 4,000, 5,000, 18,000,
120,000. And ideally, what you should be
doing is doing the same strategy as me.
You should be making multiple videos for
each topic that you deem as a good
topic. Because you never know which one
of these videos is going to end up
taking off. You just know that that
topic is going to be good. So, if you
actually swing and you miss, guess what?
Just swing again. That's a great thing
about YouTube is these videos are free
to make. They're free to upload and you
can just keep uploading until you have a
video actually do well for whatever
topic your ideal audience wants to see.
We come over here and type in hashtag,
we see the same thing. These videos have
done solid, but if we scroll down a
little, 160,000, 800,000, 60,000. There
are so many videos and so much
opportunity that you need to make sure
you're doing this. Now, that last change
you need to make sure that you're making
is when you go to upload a YouTube
Short, you need to make sure that you're
actually creating a Short that's the
right length. And now YouTube actually
shows you what length you should make
your content. Check this out.
Now, the way that you're going to
actually do this is you're going to come
over into your YouTube analytics right
here. You are going to click on trends
and whatever topic you were going to
upload on. For example, we could come
over here and we could type in YouTube
algorithm or even I'll type in YouTube
Shorts algorithm. Let's say that I was
going to make a short-form piece of
content about this. What I would do is I
would type this in right here. Under
what people are watching, you want to
click on show all. You want to come
under Shorts. This will show you what's
doing the best. We can see 13 seconds, 5
seconds, 15, 21, 7, 47. So, the majority
of videos that are doing well under this
are anywhere from 7 to 21 seconds long.
So, if I was making a video about this
topic, I would also want to make it
short. But let's say that we come over
here and we type in something like
ChatGPT hacks, we're going to find
something completely different. If we
come under here, 1 minute, 46 seconds,
57 seconds, 41, 20, 56. So, the best
videos under here are anywhere from 40
seconds to 1 minute long. So, depending
on what topic you're going to upload,
even if it's inside of the same niche,
it's going to change how long you should
be making your videos. And that's why
you need to be going through and looking
at this before you upload any piece of
content. Because making content that's
the wrong length could be the reason
that you're not getting the views that
you want. You could have done everything
else right that I've shared with you in
this video, but you're simply making
content that's not the right length. And
as a result, you don't get the views you
want. Now, if you enjoyed this video and
you want to learn how you can get more
subscribers on YouTube fast, I would
strongly suggest you check out this
video right here that walks you through
with bunch of different changes that you
need to make sure that you're
implementing in order to get more
subscribers faster on YouTube right now.
If that's something that's interesting,
well, please check out this video right
here.