Shorts hashtag

When Shorts launched, adding #Shorts helped YouTube work out which uploads belonged in the new feed. Classification is automatic now. A vertical or square video up to three minutes long is treated as a Short on the strength of its shape and length, whatever the title says. The tag still renders as a clickable hashtag above the title, where it eats characters that could be doing something useful and links out to a feed of everybody else's Shorts. Plenty of creators keep it from habit and it costs them nothing beyond the space. Adding it does not change how an upload is classified, and leaving it off does not stop a qualifying video becoming a Short.