Pro: Square videos leave the bottom of the screen empty, and viewers can easily see your channel name, the video's title, and the subscribe button.Con: The video will have an unsightly black bar at the top and bottom of the frame.

Here's the test video we used to confirm the results:Įven still, there are advantages and disadvantages to making square YouTube Shorts.

A large percentage of video views came from the YouTube Shorts traffic source.

Our test video (a square) made it to the Shorts shelf, which only displays YouTube Shorts.

We know square videos can become YouTube Shorts because: Of course, we tested all of this on the vidIQ Shorts channel to be safe. Vertical videos (right) fill the enter mobile screen. That extra bit of artificial 'length' is what helps the video qualify (probably) as a YouTube Short. When a YouTube Short is square (left), you'll see black bars above and below the video frame. Those videos will look like perfect squares – so technically not vertical at all – but YouTube will categorize them as Shorts.Ĭheck out the square format versus the vertical format below. That means you can create Shorts with a 1:1 aspect ratio and dimensions of 1080 pixels by 1080 pixels. Apparently, YouTube Shorts don't have to be vertical as long as they're at least square.

There's a tiny caveat to YouTube's rule around vertical videos.

Resolution: 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels (standard length by width ratio for vertical content).

Aspect ratio: 9:16 (creates the vertical format).

Here are the basic technical requirements to make a Short: How to Get the Right Size for YouTube Shorts

Youtube shorts video download