PostEaseShorts and long-form share the same core logic
The recommendation system's goal is to predict what a specific viewer will watch and keep watching, and that applies to Shorts the same way it applies to long-form video. Retention still matters most. What differs is the format, and the much tighter window in which a Short has to earn it.
Shorter tends to outperform the maximum length
Even though Shorts can run several minutes, the strongest completion rates come from videos well under a minute, often in the 15-to-30-second range. That is also the clearest positive signal to the recommendation system. A Short does not need to use its full available length to perform well.
Shorts and long-form can feed each other
A Short that performs well is a reasonable signal that the topic is worth a deeper long-form video, and a long-form video can be a source of several Shorts cut from its strongest individual moments. Treating the two formats as connected, rather than entirely separate content streams, tends to work better than planning them in isolation.