Shorts brings a fast, swipe-based way of discovering and consuming stories to the web.

Instead of opening stories one by one, readers can move through a continuous stream of short-form stories, discover different topics, share stories, and jump to the full article whenever they want.

Publishers can shape the Shorts experience around their editorial needs by choosing which stories appear, organising them into collections, customising the reader experience, and adding widgets or advertisements.

The Shorts Experience

Shorts is built for quick and continuous content discovery.

Readers can:

• Swipe through stories one after another.
• Move between different story collections.
• Explore Top Stories.
• Share stories directly from Shorts.
• Open the complete article using Read Full Story.
• Continue browsing until they reach the end of the available stories.

Shorts can be accessed from a story page through the AI Summary element, using a floating button, or directly using the publisher's Shorts URL.

How Publishers Can Use Shorts

Shorts supports different ways of organising content, depending on how much editorial control a publisher wants.

Automated Discovery:
An automated collection allows the Shorts feed to stay populated with the latest eligible stories based on the collection's rules.
 

This works well when publishers want Shorts to continuously surface fresh content without manually maintaining the feed.

Editorial Curation:
A manual collection gives publishers more control over which stories appear and in what order.

Stories can be curated through the publisher's content management system, making this approach useful for specific editorial themes, campaigns, or carefully selected content.
 

Multiple Topics with Collection of Collections

Publishers can also organise Shorts into multiple child collections.

For example:
Top Stories | Sports | Politics | Entertainment | Technology

Each child collection appears as a collection chip, allowing readers to switch between topics without leaving Shorts.

Top Stories

When Shorts uses multiple child collections, readers can access a Top Stories view.

Top Stories brings together the latest eligible stories from the available child collections.

The latest 5 eligible stories from each child collection are included, with stories ordered by their published date.

This makes Top Stories useful as a single starting point for readers who want to see the latest content across multiple topics.

Performance call-out: Top Stories is server-side rendered. As the number of child collections increases, more content needs to be processed during the initial page load. Keeping the number of child collections manageable can help maintain a faster Shorts experience.

Getting Readers into Shorts

Publishers can provide readers with multiple entry points.

Switch to Shorts Mode

A Switch to Shorts Mode button can be displayed within the Story Summary/AI Summary section of a story.
When readers select it, they are taken directly into the Shorts experience.

Important: This option depends on AI Summary being enabled on the Story Page.

Floating Shorts Button

A floating Shorts button can be displayed on supported pages, giving readers a persistent way to enter Shorts.
The button text and position can be customised.

Direct URL

Readers can also access Shorts directly through its configured URL.
The route can be customised according to the publisher's requirements.

Shorts supports both subdirectory and subdomain-based setups.
 

A Shorts Feed Can Be Customised

The Shorts experience is not limited to the default interface.

Publishers can customise several parts of the experience, including:

• Shorts entry-point labels
• Read Full Story button text
• Floating button text
• Floating button position
• All Caught Up messaging
• Time Spent label
• Stories Read label
• Custom widgets
• Advertisement placements

This allows the experience to fit naturally into the publisher's existing product and editorial style.

Custom Widgets and Advertisements

Shorts supports custom HTML widgets that can be placed within the story feed.

A widget is displayed after every four Shorts stories, allowing publishers to introduce advertisements or other custom content without interrupting every story.

Publishers can configure separate placeholder heights for mobile and desktop experiences.

Widget limitations

Custom widgets should:

• Contain valid HTML.
• Not exceed 300px in width.
• Not exceed 600px in height.

The widget placement can also be used for advertising integrations, with targeting support available where required.

What Happens When Readers Reach the End?

When a reader has gone through all the available Shorts stories, they see an All Caught Up card.

The card can be customised with:

• A heading
• A description
• Time Spent
• Stories Read

For example:

You are all caught up

That's all for now. More stories will appear here soon.

Reading MetricsThe All Caught Up card also gives readers a quick view of their current Shorts session.
Time Spent shows the time spent viewing stories in the current tab.
Stories Read shows the number of stories viewed in the current tab.

These metrics are tab-based. Opening a new tab starts a new session, so the time and story count do not carry over between tabs.

Call-out: The metrics are not a permanent reading history. They represent activity within the current Shorts tab.

Sharing and Reading the Full Story

Shorts is designed for quick consumption, but readers can move seamlessly from discovery to the complete article.

Share: The Share option allows readers to share the current story from within Shorts.

Read Full Story: The Read Full Story option takes the reader to the complete story page.

The button text can be customised to match the publisher's preferred terminology.

AI Summary and Shorts

Shorts can work alongside the publisher's AI Summary experience.

When the Switch to Shorts Mode option is enabled on the Story Page, readers can move directly from a story's summary into Shorts.

The Shorts Mode option is dependent on AI Summary being enabled on the Story Page.

Important: Enabling Shorts alone does not guarantee that the Switch to Shorts Mode button will appear. The Story Page must also have the required AI Summary configuration enabled.

Content Behaviour

The way stories appear in Shorts depends on the type of collection being used.

Automated Collections

• Stories are selected automatically according to the collection rules.
• The latest eligible published stories are surfaced.
• Stories are ordered according to the automated collection.
• Collection chips are not displayed.
• More stories can be loaded as the reader continues browsing.

Manual Collections

• Stories are selected by the publisher.
• Stories follow the order configured in the collection.
• Only eligible stories are displayed.
• More stories can be loaded progressively as the reader browses.

Collection of Collections

• Child collections appear as collection chips.
• Readers can switch between child collections.
• Top Stories brings together the latest eligible stories from the child collections.
• Stories in individual collections follow their configured editorial order.

Important Things to Know

• Maximum of 50 stories per child collection
  Shorts supports a maximum of 50 stories per child collection.
  For example, five child collections can provide up to 250 stories in total.
• Automated collections do not have collection chips
  Collection chips are available when Shorts is organised using child collections. They are not displayed for automated collections.
• Top Stories uses published date
  The normal collection order and Top Stories order are different.
  Individual collections follow their configured order, while Top Stories prioritises the latest eligible stories based on their published date.
• More collections can affect performance
  A large number of child collections means more content needs to be processed for Top Stories during the initial page load.
  For the best experience, publishers should avoid creating an unnecessarily large number of collection chips.
• Shorts requires eligible content
  If the Shorts collection does not contain any eligible stories, the Shorts page displays a 404 page.
  The standard website header and footer are not displayed on this page.
• Existing sections do not automatically become Shorts
  Having a section with a name such as "Shorts" does not automatically make it the Shorts experience. The Shorts feature and its content source need to be configured appropriately.

Shorts at a Glance