YouTube finally brings fully custom thumbnails to Shorts

YouTube is finally bringing a much requested improvement to Shorts: custom thumbnails. For awhile now creators had to choose a frame from their video to act as the thumbnail of the Short, but the streaming platform is now rectifying that.

Creators in the YouTube Partner Programme can now add a fully custom thumbnail to a new Short as part of the upload flow on desktop. As for existing Shorts, you can add a custom thumbnail by opening YouTube Studio on desktop, heading to the Content tab, select Shorts, click on details followed by the pencil icon next to the Short you wish to edit, and then you should see an option to upload a custom thumbnail under the thumbnail section.

YouTube is also adding suggested thumbnails based on your Short for creators to choose from, just like they already do for long form video. Those wanting to pick a custom frame though will want to open the YouTube app on mobile to do so. We should also point out that while the Short itself is in a 9:16 aspect ratio, the ideal thumbnail size as recommended by YouTube is close to a 2:3 aspect ratio.

While fully custom thumbnails for Shorts are at time of writing limited to those in the YouTube Partner Programme, the platform did state that they will be rolling this feature out to more creators over time.

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