Vertical videos are among the most hated things on the Internet. But Google is making them more bearable by presenting them full screen on Android devices. The YouTube app previously showed vertical videos with two large black bars on either side of the screen.
But when we looked at a YouTube video on an Android phone on Wednesday, it took advantage of tall smartphone screens and filled them entirely.
The update did not show up on the YouTube app on iOS when we tested it, and Google did not immediately respond to Mashable‘s request for comment about whether it plans to change that.
Vertical videos are usually recorded by amateur shooters on smartphones, and are frequently derided for having a narrow but tall field of view that limits visibility. Since movies, TV shows and virtually everything else is shot horizontally, vertical videos can often be awkward to view.
But as long as people hold phones vertically, they’re going to record videos that way, too — and YouTube is clearly trying to make that experience a little more pleasant.