The great debate is here. And it’s not about politics or sports, but something that touches on many consumers’ daily lives: their smartphone viewing habits.
For years, filming videos horizontally seemed universally accepted, but with the advent of popular social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram, that’s no longer the case.
While traditional, horizontal video is still preferred by many smartphone users, there’s a growing trend toward vertical viewing, even on horizontally-filmed videos.
A recently conducted study from Denver-based video production company Mighteor suggests that young adults are watching horizontal videos less, choosing instead the formerly unspeakable option of watching from an upright screen.
The data, compiled through a survey of hundreds of people from just about every age demographic, asked questions focusing on how they watch videos.
While viewing habits from smartphones isn’t a particularly hard-pressing topic, many people are very set in their convictions on the subject.
Seventy-two percent of millennials say they don’t rotate their phones to watch videos horizontally, the study reported, though some aren’t jumping on board.
Tyler Travis, who at 36 is an older millennial, said he will watch a vertical video if it’s intended for a phone, but prefers horizontal.
“Man that’s lazy,” the Lakewood resident said with a chuckle, referring to watching horizontal videos vertically. “You could just watch a video full-screen by turning the phone sideways.”
But 47-year-old Golden resident Dan Driver has embraced the new format. He shoots and watches vertical videos. He said that because phones and social media have become so much more popular, vertical viewing will have an increasingly bigger place for watching videos.
“Horizontal viewing will only be for entertainment,” Driver said. “Filming in landscape just doesn’t translate as well for social media and phones.”
Millennials are the driving force behind the change in viewing content. According to the study, 85 percent of millennials — those born between 1981 and 1997 — reported using applications rather than browsers to view videos. And with apps like Snapchat and Instagram, which only use vertical video settings, the vertical video format has grown.
While the debate continues, new video formats may be giving vertical viewing an edge. With the 1:1 square aspect ratio growing more popular on Facebook and Instagram, rotating the screen doesn’t change what the video looks like, making horizontal viewing unnecessary.
While technology has changed and evolved, Mighteor chief executive Elizabeth Giorgi said the way content producers make their videos hasn’t. While Giorgi said mobile content calls for new ways of producing videos, too many companies are still making content for television and placing it on a mobile platform afterward.
One of Mighteor’s findings shows that about 20 percent of viewers watch videos silently rather than watch with headphones on. Also, about 77 percent reported to have closed out of a video if it didn’t look good enough.
These findings, Giorgi said, reflect the changes in how people watch videos.
“Millennials aren’t just binging TV on their sectionals anymore,” she said. “They aren’t living by the schedule of their entertainment. Their entertainment is going with them now.”
To make more effective and compelling content, Giorgi said producers need to focus on these trends.
“We have to be thinking about the experience of how people will watch it,” she said. “Whether or not we want to admit it, we have to be honest. People are watching when sitting in the bathroom. They watch on the bus on the way to work. They’re sneaking a peak in between meetings. Make what works for that feel of the moment viewing style.”
