TikTok Begins Testing Horizontal Fullscreen Videos

TikTok has begun testing the use of fullscreen horizontal videos. Worldwide users may already have access to this new feature. Once widely implemented, TikTok barrels closer towards YouTube’s territory in the content creation realm.

For those who may already have access to TikTok’s fullscreen horizontal videos, a new “full screen” button will be available on the square or rectangle videos in their feeds, according to TechCrunch, which confirms the tests are now active. Once the button is pressed, the video will shift into a landscape orientation, filling the screen horizontally.

TikTok has been increasingly expanding its feature sets in order to readily compete with YouTube. While still having their own respective differences, TikTok has been slowly adapting in order to cater towards longer-form content, YouTube’s bread and butter. Early this year, TikTok introduced the ability to publish 10-minute-long videos. This was a fairly strong expansion from the previous three-minute-long window users had to comply with.

Long-form content has enabled the creation of new types of videos on TikTok. Now, more in-depth education videos, how-tos, demos, and tutorials are able to thrive on the platform. Additionally, it encourages skits, discussions, and longer gameplay videos to also be published. These are all video types that largely take up YouTube’s catalogue of daily uploads.

TikTok and its vertical layout and video structure have become ubiquitous. So much so that Instagram and even YouTube itself have created similar feeds. Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts have integrated smooth-sailing verticle feeds where users must simply swipe up to get to the next video. Ironically, as YouTube is expanding its support and prioritizing its Shorts videos, TikTok is pivoting to support horizontal content.

As of now, it’s still not known when a full-fledged launch of this feature will be available. It’s likely that TikTok may continue refining the experience prior to a wide launch.