YouTube is testing its own version of Twitch clips

YouTube is finally allowing users to create and share clips from videos. A small number of creators will have access to the clipping tool during the initial test, including some gaming channels. The feature is now available on desktop and Android and it'll arrive on iOS soon.

Channels on which the test is active will have a clip icon under their videos, between the thumbs up/down and share icons. Using a slider, you can create a clip lasting between five and 60 seconds, add a title and share it elsewhere.

You don’t create a new video when you make a clip. Instead, you'll have a looping segment of the original content that you can share. YouTube notes that clipping is a highly requested feature and it will update the tool based on feedback.

Clips from live streams will appear after the stream is over and it becomes a regular video. The feature won't be available on videos made for kids, premieres that are live and live streams that are over eight hours long or don't have DVR. Clips will vanish if the original video is deleted or made private, but they'll still be available if a creator sets a video as unlisted. Meanwhile, clips that last longer than 30 seconds may include ads.

Twitch has had a clips feature for years. Sharing a snippet of a streamer doing something cool in a game is a great way of highlighting what that creator is all about — it’s far a more elegant option than just linking to a timestamp. As such, the clipping feature could prove a valuable tool for YouTube Gaming in its battle against Twitch.