Finding Shorts ideas in what’s trending (October 2026)

In YouTube Studio, open Analytics and the Trends tab at the top. “Top searches” shows the most searched terms based on your audience and your saved searches over the last 28 days, and “Breakout videos” highlights well-performing content from creators similar to your channel. Each search or idea gets an audience interest level from very low to very high.

The most useful card for Shorts is “Content gaps for Shorts,” which lists searches where viewers struggle to find quality Shorts. A Short on one of these topics starts with less competition. Some insights are limited by country, language and device, and an updated Studio experience rolling out since July 2026 may make the tab look different.

The Inspiration tab used to suggest ideas, titles, thumbnails and outlines for your channel, but YouTube is gradually deprecating it starting August 2026 and points creators to Ask Studio for brainstorming. The Inspiration tab only gave ideas in English.

Ask Studio is an AI built into YouTube Studio that helps brainstorm video ideas, explains channel analytics and gives feedback when you paste in a script. It works only in computer browsers and isn’t available to creators under 18 or to made-for-kids channels. AI suggestions can be inaccurate or inappropriate, so check facts yourself.

Long videos trending right now cover topics lots of people already care about. A Short that picks one scene or line from such a video and explains why it’s being talked about has a chance in both search and recommendations. Because you’re using someone else’s video, make your contribution clear with commentary or analysis and follow the reused content policy.

If many channels are clipping the same video, choose a different angle. When everyone covers the result, cover the decisive moment before it or a person others overlooked, and the same source becomes a different video.

Once you’ve picked a topic, decide the angle: what this video will say. The same game footage becomes a completely different Short as “the comeback in the final minute,” “a day in the life of a bench player” or “one line from the coach.” The angle should be narrow enough to state in your first line.

Shortsmith analyzes the video and suggests several angles, then writes a script for the one you pick. You can pick several angles at once to make different Shorts from the same video. Keep the angles distinct and multiple Shorts from one topic won’t feel repetitive.

Trending topics cool off fast. Shorts posted within a day or two of a video trending get the most attention, so don’t sit on the script and render. Evergreen topics (guides, explainers, records), on the other hand, are better picked from the Trends tab’s top searches and made with more care.

Not every trending video makes a good Short. Music videos and movie trailers are works in themselves, so even with commentary a Short can easily substitute for the original and cause copyright trouble, and incident or accident news risks spreading unverified information.

Trending videos that work well have many scenes and lines inside a long video, giving you one moment to pick and explain: game highlights, interviews, variety shows and vlogs full of talk and reactions.

Shortsmith’s Discover → Trending today collects YouTube trending videos (US charts in English, Shorts excluded). Browse by Sports, Entertainment, Gaming, Music, News, People & blogs and Comedy, filter by 7, 30 or 90 days and by language, search titles and channels, or show only channels you follow.

Turn on “Reusable only” to hide videos that are risky to reuse as-is, and tap cards to collect topics and make up to five Shorts at once. For a video that isn’t trending, paste its YouTube link into “Make from a link” at the top to start right away.

• Can Shorts made from others’ videos be monetized?
• Shorts titles, hashtags and descriptions
• Reading Shorts analytics