YouTube iOS 11 Update: Black Bars, Vertical Videos On YouTube No More?

YouTube announced Tuesday that its app for iOS will automatically adjust videos to the shape of a user’s screen, eliminating the black bars that typically appear while viewing a video in the app.

Typically when watching videos on a mobile device, YouTube would maintain the shape of a video by filling in screen space with black bars. Now, it will adjust the video to fill the screen completely.

The change will be most noticeable on videos filmed vertically—an internet pet peeve that has become more prevalent thanks to the popularity of smartphones. YouTube will automatically adapt the video to fit the screen size in order to fill the screen.

The change will also likely adjust videos as users flip their phones from vertical to horizontal positions, eliminating the black bars that would typically appear to make videos fit the screen proportions.