iPhone users know the struggle of trying to watch a vertical YouTube video on their handsets very well. Fortunately, they no longer have to go through that experience. The YouTube team is finally fixing this. The player will now resize based on the orientation of the video which means that users will not have to bear the sight of those ugly black bars.
It has been confirmed that the YouTube player on iOS is going to automatically adapt to the shape of the video. The confirmation came directly from the YouTube team itself on Twitter.
Recording and watching vertical videos has become increasingly common as the popularity of apps like Instagram and Snapchat has exploded over the past few years.
YouTube is the most popular online video website so you can imagine how many people had to put up with these black bars just because the player wouldn’t automatically adapt to the dimensions of the video.
Since the player will now adapt to the dimensions of the video that the user is watching, it means that there will no longer be any black bars.
Simply put, the player will become vertical if the video is vertical. If it’s square, the player will automatically become square. This will result in a much better viewing experience for users.
It doesn’t seem like this update has been rolled out as yet but it shouldn’t be long now before it’s released.
https://twitter.com/TeamYouTube/status/943178469826899968