YouTube Shorts has become a popular source of entertainment for everyone out there. Thanks to its popularity, Shorts has hit a massive milestone of 200 billion average daily views. While Shorts imitates the likes of Instagram Reels and TikTok, YouTube now allows you to rotate it as well. Generally, when we speak of a short video format like YouTube Shorts, the only thing that comes to our mind is endless vertical scrolling. Well, that’s changed, at least according to a new report by Android Authority. 

You can now rotate Shorts from YouTube’s accessibility settings

Folks over at Android Authority spotted a new setting related to YouTube Shorts that allows you to rotate it. In other words, you can watch Shorts in landscape mode, other than the popular vertical mode. The news outlet found this setting in the YouTube app’s Settings > Accessibility, on one of its Pixel 9 Pro XL. As seen in the screenshot below, there’s an option called “Rotate Shorts,” with a toggle alongside. 

When enabled, YouTube Shorts will be rotated in landscape mode. Ideally, we generally consume short-form video formats like YouTube Shorts vertically. Now that there’s an option to rotate YouTube Shorts, a question might pop into everyone’s head: Is it necessary? 

Practically, a landscape mode for YouTube Shorts is simply a waste of screen space. When you rotate YouTube Shorts, almost 70% of the screen remains unusable, with gray bars in your sight. So, why did YouTube make such a change? Since the option is available under the accessibility settings, it might not be for everyone. 

youtube android accessibility setting rotate shorts

youtube android shorts in landscape

Possible use case of the new orientation

One possible use case that the outlet notes is that this feature could be useful for people with motor disabilities, who can’t keep rotating their phones. If not, it can be for those who keep their phone mounted and don’t want to or can’t reach it, to turn it around. When enabled, YouTube’s new “Rotate Shorts” toggle overrides the system’s disabled auto-screen rotate feature as well. 

If you are eager to try out this feature, make sure to update the YouTube app to the latest version available. But, there’s no guarantee that you’ll find it since YouTube could be rolling it out in batches. Moreover, Google appears to be testing this as a server-side update; it’s live on v20.26.31 and above.
The post YouTube Now Allows Rotating Shorts: Do We Really Need It? appeared first on Android Headlines.

Source: ndroidheadlines.com