This is a popular question and this article will outline the best practice for different formats (sizes) of videos for the most common use-cases.
In Brivvio you can record holding your device vertically or horizontally, and you can change the format of your video at any time. Available formats are:
- Full landscape (16:9)
- Narrow landscape (5:4)
- Square (1:1)
- Short portrait (4:5)
- Full portrait (9:16)
Each format is best suited to different uses and destinations.
Websites
Standard practice for websites is to publish Full Landscape 16:9 videos, however 1:1 format also works well for websites, especially if they will be viewed primarily from mobile devices. To publish to your website, you may need to first upload your video to a video hosting platform such as Youtube, Vimeo or Wistia.
Social Media News Feeds (excluding TikTok and Snapchat)
Best practice for social media news feeds (Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram and Twitter) is to use either Square 1:1 or Short Portrait 3:4. This maximises the video size for the viewer, when posting videos to the news feeds of personal profiles, pages and groups. You can also post Full Landscape 16:9 or Narrow Landscape 4:3 videos to social feeds, however they appear much smaller within the viewer's device.
Tip: We recommend NOT using Full Portrait 9:16 when posting to news feeds. This is because social media platforms will either crop the top and bottom of 9:16 videos when viewed on mobile devices, and pillar-box videos when viewed on desktop web-browsers.
Social Stories, TikTok and Snapchat
Best practice for stories is to post Full Portrait 9:16 videos, since they are natively displayed full frame and filling the screen vertically on all devices, including desktop website browsers.
Email has small file size limits and is not yet very capable of carrying large video messages. For very short videos (under 30 seconds), it may be possible to attach them directly to the email when sending. Note that just because your email service let's you attach a video file, does not mean that the recipient will be able to receive it, because their email service provider may have different file-size limits.
Standard practice for sending larger videos via email (when they are larger than your or the recipient's email service permits) is to upload your video to a sharable place, (such as Youtube, Dropbox, MS Teams, or a social platform, and then copy and paste the direct URL link into the email.
Be aware that uploading videos this way, might make them publicly available to anyone with the link, so you may want to check the privacy settings of the video when you upload it.
Best practice for videos sent via email is to publish Full Landscape 16:9 videos, however Square 1:1 format also works well.
SMS
SMS also has small file size limits and is not yet very capable of carrying large video messages. For very short videos (under 30 seconds), it may be possible to send them directly as an SMS. Note videos sent by SMS to Android devices may appear highly impressed and blurry on the recipient's device. This is due to a limitation in SMS capabilities of Android devices that compress videos when they are received via SMS.
Any format will work, but the best format to send via SMS is Full Portrait 9:16 because SMS is usually received on mobile phones that are held vertically. Most SMS apps on phones will playback 9:16 videos full frame, so the experience is maximised for the recipient. Other formats that work well for SMS are Short Portrait 4:5 and Square 1:1.
Other messaging apps
You can send Brivvio videos via other messaging apps, such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram messages, Linkedin Messaging, Slack, MS Teams, Signal, Telegram. Each of these platforms have different file size limits and capabilities that are constantly evolving. In general we recommend to keep video messages shared via messaging apps short (under 60 seconds).
Any format will work, but, like SMS, the best format to send via messaging apps is Full Portrait 9:16 because SMS is usually received on mobile phones that are held vertically. Most SMS apps on phones will playback 9:16 videos full frame, so the experience is maximised for the recipient. Other formats that work well for SMS are Short Portrait 4:5 and Square 1:1.