Did you know you can schedule your videos without having to access YouTube Studio?

In this article, you’ll learn how to create, schedule, and publish Shorts directly to the YouTube app with SocialBee.   

Can you schedule Shorts on YouTube?

Yes, YouTube Shorts can be scheduled directly in the YouTube Studio app on both desktop and mobile. 

However, if you’re managing multiple YouTube channels alongside other social accounts, a third-party tool can be more efficient. SocialBee lets you schedule YouTube Shorts in advance and plan them alongside your other posts in one content calendar. It also recommends best posting times based on your past performance, making it easier to schedule without guessing.

This setup helps you automatically post at times that have already worked for your audience, and free up time for video content creation. Plus, you can manage multiple social media accounts from the same dashboard.

How long do YouTube Shorts have to be?

YouTube Shorts can be up to 3 minutes long, but short-form videos between 7 and 30 seconds usually perform better for the YouTube algorithm.

YouTube Shorts dimensions and aspect ratio

YouTube Shorts are built for vertical, mobile-first viewing. To make sure your Shorts are displayed correctly:

• Export at 1080 × 1920 pixels
• Stick to a 9:16 aspect ratio

This format fills the screen on a mobile device, avoids black bars, and matches how most people watch Shorts inside the native YouTube app.

SocialBee makes publishing YouTube Shorts straightforward by supporting direct posting to the platform. You can upload a single Short up to 3 minutes long, with files up to 512 MB, and schedule it like any other post. That means no manual uploads, no reminders, and no switching between multiple platforms during publishing.

Note: SocialBee automatically detects whether videos should be published as YouTube Shorts or regular full-length videos based on their format. Vertical or square YouTube posts (9:16 or 1:1) up to three minutes long are published as Shorts.  

First, connect your YouTube channel to SocialBee

Before you can schedule YouTube Shorts, you need to connect your YouTube account to SocialBee. This is a one-time setup and only takes a few minutes.

To connect your YouTube channel to SocialBee, follow these steps:

1. Go to the SocialBee dashboard here, scroll to the "Connect a new account" section, and click on "+ Channel" under YouTube.

2. You will be prompted to select your Google account associated with your YouTube, and then to authorize SocialBee to post for you.
3. Once you've connected your account, you'll be able to see it in the SocialBee dashboard.

How to schedule YouTube Shorts directly from SocialBee 

SocialBee supports YouTube Shorts scheduling. Upload a video, add a title, description, and hashtags, then schedule it like any other post.

Here are the steps to create and schedule your YouTube Shorts with SocialBee.

1. Click “Create post” at the top of your SocialBee dashboard.

2. Select your YouTube channel from the left-hand menu.

3. Click “Proceed” to enable YouTube-specific publishing options.
4. Choose the video’s privacy setting from the dropdown (“Public,” “Private,” or “Unlisted”).

5. Fill in your video details. Write your video titles and descriptions in the text box, or generate them with SocialBee’s AI as a starting point.

6. Add hashtags using the “wand + #” icon to generate suggestions, or click the “#” icon to insert hashtags from your saved collections.

7. Format your caption using bold or italic text and add emojis where they help emphasize key points.

8. Upload videos by clicking on the photo icon. SocialBee automatically detects whether it will be published as a YouTube Short or a regular video based on its format. Vertical or square videos (9:16 or 1:1) up to three minutes long are published as Shorts.

9. Click “1st comment” at the bottom of the editor if you want to schedule a pinned comment.

10. Assign the post to a post category to keep your YouTube content organized and maintain a consistent schedule.
11. Choose when to publish:
    1. Post now to publish immediately.
    2. Post at a specific time to schedule your YouTube Short in advance. SocialBee may suggest optimal posting times based on your past performance.
12. (Optional) Enable additional controls:
    1. Re-queue after posting to reshare the Short later.
    2. Expire post to automatically remove it after a specific date.

13. Review the real-time preview on the right side of the editor to confirm everything looks correct.

• Toggle “This is approved” to schedule the post, or mark it as a draft if it still needs review.
• Click “Create post.” SocialBee will automatically publish your scheduled video at the right time.

However, SocialBee is more than a YouTube scheduler. You can plan content across multiple major social media platforms, collaborate with your team, engage with your audience, analyze performance, and use AI to support both strategy planning and content creation.

How to batch schedule YouTube Shorts?

YouTube's native scheduler doesn’t support true batch scheduling. You can upload multiple Shorts at once, but you must schedule each video individually. For real batch scheduling, you need a third-party tool like SocialBee.

SocialBee uses a category-based scheduling system. Instead of scheduling each Short individually, you set the rules once and let the tool apply them automatically.

This is the simplest way to schedule YouTube videos without selecting individual publish times.

How batch scheduling YouTube Shorts works in SocialBee:

1. Create a content category dedicated to YouTube Shorts
2. Set a posting schedule for that category, for example, one Short every weekday at noon.
3. Bulk-import your Shorts into that category
4. SocialBee assigns each Short to the next available time slot automatically

Once the schedule is set, every Short added to that category is scheduled without any manual date or time selection.

Ways to upload your YouTube Shorts in bulk

If you’re publishing Shorts regularly, uploading them one by one doesn’t scale. Bulk uploading lets you plan ahead, stay consistent, and remove manual work from your workflow. In SocialBee, you can upload YouTube Shorts in bulk in two ways, depending on how you organize your content.

Option 1: Import media in bulk (video files)

Use this method when you already have your YouTube Shorts saved as video files and want the fastest in-app upload process.

1. Go to Content → Import Media in your SocialBee dashboard.
2. Select the YouTube profile you want to publish Shorts to.
3. Drag and drop your video files into the upload area. You can upload up to 100 videos at once.
4. Choose the Content Category where the Shorts should live. This category should already have a posting schedule.
5. Add captions in bulk or edit them individually using the preview panel.
6. (Optional) Adjust advanced settings, such as expiration rules.
7. Click Import and choose whether the posts should be approved or saved as drafts.

SocialBee publishes each Short automatically based on the category’s predefined schedule.

If you want a full walkthrough of this process, see: How to Import Media Files in Bulk (Several at Once).

Option 2: CSV import (spreadsheet-based planning)

Choose this option if you plan content in spreadsheets or want to migrate YouTube Shorts from another tool.

1. Go to Content → Import CSV in your SocialBee dashboard.
2. Select the YouTube profile you want to publish to.
3. Upload your CSV file. Using SocialBee’s ready-made template helps avoid formatting errors.
4. In the CSV, add:
   • Shorts descriptions in the text column
   • Public video file URLs in the videoUrls column
   • Optional publish dates and times, or leave them blank
5. Assign all rows to a Content Category with an existing schedule.
6. Click Import and choose whether the posts should be approved or saved as drafts.

SocialBee schedules all Shorts in bulk, either using the dates and times from the CSV or the category’s posting schedule.

For a detailed explanation of CSV formatting and advanced settings, see: How to Import Content via CSV Files.

Does scheduling Shorts on YouTube affect views?

Scheduling YouTube Shorts does not reduce views on its own. It often helps because it allows you to post consistently and publish when your audience is most active. 

What matters most for Shorts is what happens shortly after the video goes live. When viewers watch and engage with your Short in the early minutes/hours, YouTube receives positive signals that the content is worth showing to more people.

What are the best times to post YouTube Shorts?

The best days to post on YouTube are Fridays, with Thursdays and Saturdays also performing well. The best times to post are during the afternoon and evening, typically between 2 PM and 4 PM, and from 8 PM to 11 PM.

These time ranges are a useful baseline, but they’re not the final answer. The best time to post YouTube Shorts is when your audience is actually active, not when global averages say they should be.

Start by checking your YouTube analytics and look for patterns in:

• Views and engagement in the first 1-2 hours
• When your viewers are most active by day and hour
• Which Shorts gain momentum fastest after video upload

Once you spot those patterns, turn them into a repeatable schedule. This is where SocialBee helps remove the guesswork for YouTube as well as other social media channels. SocialBee analyzes your past performance and surfaces the best posting time recommendations right when you schedule a post. 

These recommendations factor in the specific account you’re posting to, your best-performing historical data, the post category, and the most effective hour for that day. In the calendar, suggested times are clearly marked with a yellow outline, so they’re easy to spot.