TikTok tests horizontal video viewing

Already added to the TikTok interface for at least some users, the new Full Screen button allows you to watch clips with your phone or tablet screen oriented horizontally.

Apparently, the functionality still in the testing stage is available for all TikTok clips, regardless of whether they were filmed with the phone oriented vertically, or cropped to square shape to accommodate vertical viewing.

Enabling the new Full Screen button makes viewing take up the entire screen area, whether you hold the phone vertically or horizontally. The downside is that all TikTok clips have so far been edited for the platform’s vertical interface, cropping for maximised playback on a horizontal display screen involves considerable zooming into the image and narrowing the field of view.

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– resie📚 (@NANAMIBRAINR0T) December 14, 2022

With the change, ByteDance’s administrator is trying to make TikTok as credible a YouTube alternative as possible, especially for those users who want to get their “fix” of clips shot directly from the TV screen. At the same time, ByteDance hopes that this will convince more YouTube creators to bring their productions to TikTok, eliminating the need to edit separate clips for the two platforms. Not infrequently, editing YouTube clips for portrait mode proved unfeasible, with the cropped image missing text descriptions and other graphics essential to the author’s message.

To the exasperation of YouTube administrators, clips republished on TikTok will be viewable in their original format, with minimal effort for creators eager to increase their audience with users of the rival platform.