Horizontal or vertical? In the format war, users never win

In 2010, Apple presented its first iPad, Samsung its first Galaxy S, David Fincher undressed the new king in The social network and one new social network came to change everything.

Instagram It emerged as a new app that became one of the most popular for two reasons: It was exclusive to iPhone and also forced its users to share images taken with their phone in a square format as if it were an old polaroid.

These were times when being unique was worth it and just like Twitter’s character restriction was what popularized it and made it more relevant than blogs, Instagram managed to establish itself on sites like Flickr where users uploaded their traditional photos, taken with digital cameras and without loss of quality. Oddly enough, the app that defied the norm was the one that lasted and was acquired by Facebook just two years after its launch.

In the hands of Mark Zuckerberg Instagram’s intention was already different, master all formats whatever the price. Much to the dismay of the Apple family, it arrived on Android and soon other formats began to be added, such as landscape videos and photos . There have even been failed experiments like IG TV an app that sought to compete with YouTube.

Of the difference, Instagram has become the place for everything : If Zuckerberg couldn’t buy Snapchat, well, let’s implement it. the stories on Instagram. If we can’t beat the giant TikTok, let’s try the reels . That people watch Twitch a lot now? We have the Instagram Lives . They even created their own Twitter (Topics ) to greet the exodus caused by Elon Musk.

The service’s roadmap in recent years has been to implement whatever works elsewhere and, well, it has worked for them. With over 2 billion unique users They are now the fourth social media application with the most users in the world, surpassed by Facebook – which are their parents -, YouTube and very close to WhatsApp.

And now, Instagram is reportedly about to make its next big move and completely abandon its square grid and make all app content vertical . If you haven’t received this test, which is already underway, you can go to Instagram and see that the photo gallery is square, but the Reels gallery displays them stretched. Well, that same format would now apply to the entire site. Something that really shouldn’t matter much to us, beyond how ugly the billions of photos uploaded to the app over the past 14 years will look when they have to be stretched or cropped to fit in the thumbnail.

But what really lies behind this decision, if it is finally applied to all users, is that it reveals the way in which those behind the applications manage to make us, the users, download the type of content they want with the duration you want and now, in the desired format .

But is there something wrong? the vertical format ? The mass adoption of smartphones as content-generating devices has sparked an Internet war between horizontalists and verticalists .

The first, defenders of the cinematographic tradition which has reigned for centuries and also how the world has been practically built on the basis of screens, media and machines that record in only one way. Filming vertically has become synonymous with carefreeness. , neglect , egocentrism – since it promotes the appearance of only one person on the plane – and in a certain way, a value less than horizontal .

On the other hand, Verticalism argues that it is the easiest and most comfortable way to generate photos and videos with the most popular devices we have today: cell phones and they are also numerous easier to consume on these same screens . And especially for the new generations, who grew up with the vertical format as the new norm, the impact is much less.

But the vertical format also has characteristics that make it much more attractive for certain types of applications and consumption on the phone, which It’s much more relaxed and requires less of our attention. . One of the virtues of TikTok, for example, when using vertical content, is that any interaction with the content is at your fingertips: if you want to give a like, the button is right there, the same for sharing, everything is very simple. . But above all, the fact of “zapping” and switching from one video to another simply by sliding a finger is something that only allows the naturalness of holding a phone high.

If you have used TikTok, X or Instagram reels, you will have noticed that What they are looking for is to provide us with as much short content as possible and to achieve this, the friction with the app must be minimal. . Look at how many steps it takes to go from one TikTok video to the next, versus what you take for example on YouTube or Netflix . But this is understandable because these are two different types of consumption.

And since we’ve mentioned YouTube and Netflix, let’s talk about horizontal content, which also has its space. Beyond the judgment we can make on quality, we can be sure that horizontal content is much longer content and that, consequently, require larger screens . In this, the horizontal format is and will be king. Let us recall that in 2020 a streaming service called Quibi was launched, which was the first to offer series and films designed for the vertical format. But between the lack of interest and the pandemic, the idea failed .

And finally, for every screen orientation there is a format. For something YouTube has its traditional videos , horizontal and extended but also has shorts , which are vertical and of shorter duration . And for something too TikTok fought back and earlier this year also started accepting horizontal videos up to 30 minutes long. the problem is that without a platform or defined space to hold them.

So how does it actually affect us if the application we are using is horizontal or vertical? The topic in question is about the incentives offered by the applications so that we can create the content that, ultimately, its owners want us to produce.

Let’s go back to the example of Instagram, which triggered all this. Adam Mosseri, the boss of Instagram, explained that the changes in its design are due to the fact that most people now upload content in vertical formats, whether it’s stories, reels or even photos. But what role has Instagram played in this apparent public preference? Because ultimately, it is the application that decides, through its algorithm, what to show other users, and if for many years Instagram has chosen to highlight reels rather than photos and square content This is because they clearly wanted to gain the space that Snapchat had opened up at the time and now TikTok.

If you decide what content you are going to promote, more than the preference of people on the app, it is the preference of the app over people that prevails. Of course, Instagram is not the first to do this. TikTok has in fact popularized the viralization of content offered by the app itself, by creating an algorithm that gives other users a greater chance of appearing if they you use the mode filter , the trending song , the fashion format etc. It is ultimately a competition for find a fashion , repeat it then go straight to the next mode and so on .

And in fact, when TikTok launched its support for horizontal videos, it did so by informing its top content creators that if they made horizontal videos, they would get more views. And more views in the internet age means more money, for both parties.

YouTube does the same, for example by rewarding videos with thumbnails that meet certain characteristics (human faces, large letters for example) and also by punishing monetization using certain words or content that naturally forces creators to standardize accordingly. way what they do.

The paradox of all this is that so little time has passed since the internet rewarded those who were different and today everyone fights to be more equal than others . And the reason is, as always, capture our attention . The consumer ultimately does not choose his content based on how it is created, he only knows that for memes there is an app and for sitting on the couch at home or playing in the background while cleaning, there is another. And those who create content will always remain behind the format promoted by the app, because that is what the algorithm has determined should be the mold in which it must behave. Of course, it is possible to innovate and the challenge is perhaps even greater when trying to do what you want, creatively and going beyond photocopying.

For now, Whether it is vertical, horizontal or square is no longer a statement of principle. but It’s simply the rule that the app has decided for you to make you spend more time of your day on it and not on another. .