Budding film makers the world over are in a better position than ever to get their home grown motion pictures into the hands of people with movie making clout. The smartphone has brought videography to the masses and with the connected service we use today – such as YouTube – it’s never been easier to search, watch and best of all, share video content across the globe.
YouTube is a hugely popular online video service, but it’s not always clear how to translate your movies from smartphone to this expansive online platform. Whatever smartphone you have, there’s two things you’ll need, a solid internet connection and a YouTube account.
Android and Gmail users will have the easiest process when creating an account but just head to YouTube.com and hit the ‘Sign In’ button in the top right of the page and log in using your Gmail details. If you don’t yet have an account create one, by selecting the ‘Sign Up’ button, again in the top right-hand corner of the page. After this it’s just a case of following the instructions.
Android
YouTube, being a Google product, much like Gmail or Search comes pre-installed on practically every Android smartphone and tablet, but if yours doesn’t appear to have it, it’s free to download from the Android Market/Google Play.
Froyo/Gingerbread – Once you’ve signed into the YouTube application on your device, by default you’ll be presented with the video stream. To upload simply press the Menu button on your smartphone and you’ll see the option to ‘Upload’ at the bottom. You’ll be taken to your smartphone’s media gallery where you can browse all of your videos and select the desired file for upload.
You’re then presented with a screen enabling you to title, describe and tag your video and at the bottom you’ll see the option to ‘Upload’; the video will then appear in the Uploads tab of the YouTube app and feature a progress bar showing you the percentage of the upload. Once uploaded you’ll be able to see your video online.
Ice Cream Sandwich/Jelly Bean – Once you’ve signed into the YouTube application on your device, by default you’ll be presented with channel feed. To upload a video, swipe to the right to reveal the menu and select the top option, which should be your username. You’ll now notice an upwards arrow icon has appeared at the top of the screen next to the search icon. Tapping the Upload icon will take you to your smartphone’s media gallery where you’ll be able to browse all of your videos and select the desired file for upload.
Having chosen a video file, you’re then presented with a screen enabling you to title, describe, tag and set the privacy of your video and at the bottom you’ll see the option to ‘Upload.’ The video will then appear in the Uploads tab of the YouTube app and feature a progress bar showing you the percentage of the upload. Once uploaded you’ll be able to see your video online.
iOS
Apple has the kept the process simple with iOS but before you begin, make sure you’re signed in on the native YouTube app. On your iPhone, head to the Photos application and find and open the video you wish to upload. You’ll notice a share icon in the bottom left of the screen, tapping this gives you options such as ‘Email Video’, ‘Message’ and ‘Send to YouTube.’ Select the third option and you’ll be taken to a publish screen where you can input a title, video description, choose from Standard or High Definition (HD uploads a larger file which takes longer, but is better quality), add tags, select the video’s category and select privacy settings.
Once you’ve added all the desired information, tap the blue ‘Publish’ button in the top right and the screen will show an upload progress bar beneath your video. Once the video is uploaded, open the YouTube app, tap ‘More’ and select ‘My Videos’ to see your newly uploaded footage.
Windows Phone
Presently Windows Phone devices don’t support native YouTube uploading, with the only available options under ‘Share…’ being to send to SkyDrive, Messaging or any email accounts you may have configured with your Windows Phone. This issue may possibly be rectified once Windows Phone 8 is released, however for the time being users can upload to YouTube via email. To do so you first need to know your unique upload email address, which can be found my checking your account settings on YouTube from a desktop computer.
From your Windows Phone, find the video in your albums that you wish to upload and press the options icon in the lower right hand corner followed by the aforementioned ‘Share…’ button. In the menu which follows choose your regular email account and the video will be compressed into the email. In the ‘To’ field, input your unique upload email address, in the ‘Title’ field is where you need to write the title of your video and in the body of the email, write the description for your video. Sending this will result in your video being uploaded to your channel.
Uploading this way automatically sets videos to public so you’ll need to access your YouTube account via other means if you wish to change the setting for your video.
BlackBerry OS
As with iOS, uploading to YouTube from a BlackBerry OS is relatively simple. Firstly find the video you wish to upload on your device, open it and press the BlackBerry key. You will then have the option to ‘Send’ the video choosing ‘Upload to YouTube.’ You’ll then need to log into your YouTube account if you haven’t already.
Once you’ve logged in you can add a title, select the privacy of the video, add a description, tags, a category and at the bottom of them menu is a button to ‘Publish’ to YouTube. You’ll then be presented with a progress bar of your upload which you can ‘Hide in Background’ if you so choose. Once complete, your video will be available on YouTube.
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