Pick the shape of most of your videos
- Landscape 16:9 fills computers and TVs, and phones turned sideways. Most 24/7 channels use it.
- Vertical 9:16 fills a phone held upright. Pick it if most of your videos were filmed on a phone held upright.
When most of the videos you add are vertical, AFK Live suggests Vertical for you.
What YouTube does with a vertical live
YouTube shows a vertical live full screen to people watching on phones, and can show it in the Shorts feed too. On a computer it appears with bars at the sides.
Where to change it
Open the stream, then Settings → Picture → Shape. The shape can only change while the stream is off air; it applies the next time you go live. If YouTube then stays on Preparing, end the old live in YouTube Studio and start a fresh one (how).
Videos of the other shape
A playlist can mix shapes. Videos that aren't the stream's shape are shown one of three ways, set in Settings → Videos that aren't the stream's shape, or per video in the playlist:
- Blurred background: the whole picture over a soft, blurred copy of itself. Best for phone videos in a landscape stream.
- Bars: the whole picture, with black bars at the sides or top and bottom.
- Fill and crop: fills the frame; the edges of the picture are cut off.
Videos filmed at 60 frames per second
Plans that stream at 30 frames per second play 60 frames per second videos smoothly at 30. You don't need to convert them first. Plans with 60 frames per second can change it in Settings → Quality.