If there’s one thing most smartphone users will probably agree on, it’s that recording videos with your smartphone camera while the phone is being held in portrait mode (vertically) is despised. Whatever your feelings on it, watching videos on YouTube for Android would sometimes bring you in contact with these videos which lacked the advantage of viewing things in full screen. Up until now there has been no way around the empty black space surrounding the vertical orientation of the video box, but with Google’s latest update to the YouTube app on android they’ve taken vertical videos into account and have given users a way to at least enjoy the videos a little more.
It’s actually really quite simple and users don’t need to do much to initiate this change. For those wondering, YouTube now supports an actual full-screen view for videos which people shoot in portrait mode, meaning that if you happen to view a vertical video, you can view it so that the video actually takes up all of your phone screen space and completely eliminate the black space on either side of the video box. To see vertical videos in full-screen view, all users have to do to is tilt their device to a vertical orientation. It’s really not any harder than that.
This feels like something which should have been implemented long before now, but it likely matters not since it’s now available. It’s not the same as not having any vertical videos at all, but it’s a change which definitely suits portrait mode videos better than the prior iteration of the YouTube app. This is one of many subtle yet appreciated and needed changes Google has brought to YouTube recently, including other things like support for 360 degree videos, support for videos at 60fps and support for 60 fps live streaming, some of which has been in direct regards to their launch of the upcoming YouTube Gaming. it’s these minor changes that almost make the YouTube app feel more complete then loads of added new features. New features are great and uses surely love them, but viewing things full screen (truly full screen) is probably more important.