Vertical video isn't the next big thing anymore. It's the default.

For years, 16:9 was treated as the "proper" shape for video. Then smartphones changed how people hold the screen, and the platforms followed.

When I first wrote about vertical video, the question was whether it would become the next big thing. That question has been answered. Vertical is now the default format for how most people watch video, and for most brands it should be the default for how they create it.

How we got here

Snapchat proved early that vertical, full-screen video kept people watching. Its own data showed vertical video ads were completed far more often than horizontal ones. Then the rest of the industry followed. Instagram Stories and later Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Facebook Reels all made full-screen vertical video central to their products. Today, short-form vertical content is where a large share of attention on social platforms goes.

The logic is simple. People hold their phones upright. A video that fills the screen without asking them to rotate the phone is easier to watch, so they watch more of it.

What this means for your creative

Shoot vertical from the start. Cropping a horizontal video into 9:16 almost always loses something: faces cut in half, text off-screen, a product out of frame. Plan the shot for vertical.

Respect the safe zones. Each platform overlays captions, buttons and profile information on parts of the screen. Keep key text, faces and products inside the safe area so nothing important gets covered.

Hook in the first seconds. Vertical feeds are built for scrolling. Open with movement, a face, a question or the product in use, not a slow logo reveal.

Design for sound off, and sound on. Use captions and on-screen text so the message lands silently, and use sound to make the video better when it's on.

Make it feel native. Content that looks like it belongs on the platform, with real people, real settings and a natural tone, usually outperforms polished TV-style ads repurposed for mobile.

Produce in volume. Short-form vertical creative fatigues quickly. Plan a steady pipeline of new videos rather than one big production every quarter.

Don't abandon other formats entirely

Square and 4:5 formats still matter for some feed placements, and horizontal video still has a place on YouTube and connected TV. The point isn't to use only one format. It's to start with vertical, then adapt for other placements, rather than the other way round.

The bottom line

The format debate is over. The brands winning attention now are those that build their content for vertical from the first idea, not those that crop it at the end.

A version of this article first appeared on muhammadeltiti.com.