YouTube’s Website Now Supports Vertical Videos Without Black Bars

An interesting update is rolling out to all YouTube player on the desktop. Like mobile devices, the YouTube desktop player now supports the exact ratios of the videos you are watching.

Previously, YouTube used to show black bars around videos that aren’t in the standard 16:9 aspect ratio. This included vertical videos, 4:3 videos, and videos with other respect ratios. That wasn’t really much of a problem for many, but Google is changing the way the YouTube player treats these videos in the different aspect ratios. According to a report by Android Police.

The announcement wasn’t made by a blog post, as usual but was posted in the YouTube help forum over the weekend.

“We launched an update to the YouTube video player on desktop – the player now automatically adapts to provide the best viewing experience based on the video’s size (aspect ratio) and your computer’s screen/browser size,” one of YouTube’s community managers, Marissa said on user forums.

“Historically, for non wide-screen videos (not 16:9) like vertical and square videos, we would show black bars alongside the video, making the video really small. This update moves away from the need for black bars. We launched this update on mobile awhile back (both Android and iOS) so this change also aligns the desktop and mobile viewing experiences. “she added.

Videos that aren’t in the 16:9 aspect ratio will no longer have a black bar around them — instead, the player will adapt to the video’s exact size. This is mostly useful for vertical videos, especially when you are viewing YouTube on a narrow window since the videos are now capable of adapting to the aspect ratio instead of being locked within the 16:9 aspect ratio.

The updated YouTube player is rolling out gradually, so you will eventually get the new update for your player.