YouTube has updated their Android app (version 10.28) where you can view the dreaded vertical videos properly. Previously, you could only view vertical videos full screen on landscape which was a pain to be honest and attempts to change this by rotating the screen.
We have been conditioned to consume video content in the widescreen landscape format thanks to our TVs and watching videos on our phones. However, Snapchat has been bucking this trend where videos shared on the platform are all vertical. Snapchat also paraded the gospel of the vertical video by wooing advertisers to try out their 3V vertical video views strategy where the CEO, Evan Spiegel, enumerated the various benefits of vertical video over horizontal video.
So why has YouTube decided to finally let users see vertical videos properly on the mobile app? Well one can argue from the basis of the effect of ads being displayed vertically versus being shown in the conventional horizontal format. According to Snapchat’s CEO, vertical videos are nine times likely to be completed than horizontal mobile video and also said these videos are tailored for mobile, unlike the horizontal videos which are better suited for TV and laptops.
Since we usually use our phones on portrait mode most of the time, watching videos in this format will feel more natural. YouTube also announced that their strategy is mobile mobile mobile & if the data collected by Snapchat could be applied to the platform, it would lead to higher ad click rates by users.
If you can’t be able to see the new update on the Play Store, you can also download the updated version here
