Facebook has technically been supporting vertical videos for about a year now, but they were fairly rare in the ‘real world.’ According to an announcement, however, that is all about to change. The social network is going to be putting more emphasis on vertical, and including them in people’s news feeds more often. This applies to live videos, video ads, and more.
When vertical videos were included in the news feed in the past, they would be cropped to display only a square of the video, and people would need to tap it in order to see the full image. This extra step is going to go away, which means people will be seeing more of the videos from the beginning, which is good for marketers and brands.
According to the spokesperson’s email from Facebook, “We know that people enjoy more immersive experiences on Facebook, so we’re starting to display a larger portion of each vertical video in News Feed on mobile.”
According to research, people will spend more time watching this type of video when it is displayed with audio on than they would a smaller format video. Facebook undoubtedly took the time to really dig into this to see what would get people to spend more time on their app, and how they could provide a better service to those who pay to advertise on their site.
Some people are surprised that Facebook is moving so slowly on this issue. Sites like Snapchat and Instagram have been showing vertical videos for a long time, with great success.
