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Good thumbnails on videos are important but on YouTube Shorts, you couldn’t choose one for the longest time. But that has now changed – at least in some cases. So here is how to choose a thumbnail for YouTube Shorts.
I filmed and created my YouTube short in the iPhone app. Then I simply had to click on the picture that was shown next to the description.
Basically it’s that little edit pencil button. Then, I can go through the frames and pick the still shot that is the best fit for the thumbnail.
There are not a gazillion options, but it’s more than there used to be.
So when you’re shooting your YouTube Short directly in the app, this is an easy option.
Read next: How to drive traffic to other YouTube videos from your YouTube Shorts
YouTube Short thumbnails on PC
The other use case where I use YouTube Shorts is after creating soundbites from my podcast episodes.
On YouTube desktop however the choosing of thumbnails is not possible yet. Currently it says you have to go to the mobile app to pick a thumbnail after uploading the video.
But then when I went to the mobile app and also the YouTube Studio app, there were no options to actually change it. So maybe that’s a feature that’s coming soon or maybe it’s possible soon to change YouTube short thumbnails on a PC.
So that’s how you currently do it, and maybe there will be more changes in the future to optimize those thumbnails from all devices.