A New Way To View Vertical Video On YouTube

No more black bars on vertical videos on YouTube! Yes, the world’s top video platform finally embraces the vertical video format with size auto-detection.

Video is now a fully commodified feature, accessible through the palm of our hands and shareable via a single click of a button. And while video is produced in a matter of seconds, viewing it has long been trailing in terms of specs and options, leaving viewers frustrated about their experience.

But YouTube is changing that. Remember those ugly black bars on vertical video? Yes, they are on the way out, as YouTube changes the way videos are viewed on mobile. Mobile devices account for 58% of online video watching worldwide in 2017 and 29% of Americans watch videos in vertical mode, which leaves us wondering why this update didn’t come earlier.

YouTube’s mobile app will now automatically detect the size of the video, and adjust it to occupy the entire screen – the same way it does on Snapchat or Facebook. I know, it’s not really groundbreaking, but it’s a really nice update. You won’t have to put up with the black bars on each side of your vertical videos anymore.

What’s more in the update? A new logo, too. For the first time since it came to be. Not as drastic as Instagram’s rebranding, but still pretty important.