YouTube is rolling out changes to its search filters that give users more control over what type of videos appear in their results, including a new option to filter out Shorts entirely.
The long-requested update follows user feedback around search results mixing short form and long form content, making it harder to find full videos when searching by topic. YouTube says the changes are designed to make search more intuitive and help viewers locate specific content faster.
The new filters are part of a broader update to YouTube’s advanced search tools, which also includes renamed sorting options and the removal of some underused filters.
YouTube Shorts get their own dedicated filter
One of the biggest changes is the addition of a dedicated Shorts filter under the Type menu. This allows users to explicitly choose whether they want to see Shorts or long form videos when searching, instead of having both formats appear together by default.
YouTube is also renaming its Sort By menu to Prioritize, a change the company says is meant to better reflect how results are ranked. As part of that update, the View count option is now called Popularity.
According to YouTube, the Popularity filter considers view count alongside other relevance signals such as watch time to surface widely watched videos related to a specific search query.
Alongside the new additions, YouTube is simplifying its filter menu by removing options that were not performing as expected. The Upload Date – Last Hour filter and the Sort by Rating option are being removed.
Users can still find recent uploads through existing Upload Date filters, while highly viewed content can be discovered using the new Popularity option.
The changes are aimed at streamlining search and reducing confusion, particularly as Shorts continue to play a larger role across the platform.
