For the social media obsessed, the issue of screen orientation across platforms can be an irritating one. While TikTok only displays vertically, YouTube videos are best viewed horizontally. If you're a content creator, this means either filming duplicate videos or cropping the existing video to fit both screen orientations. Until now.
Earlier this year, one tech genius came up with a rather, erm, interesting solution. It certainly looks effective, as long as you don't mind the the dubious glances you're pretty much guaranteed to receive while doing it. All you need is a rubber band and not one but two of the best camera phones (and we'd also suggest throwing in a couple of photo apps for editing).
a tiktoker just showed me how he films videos for tiktok and youtube simultaneously and my mind has been boggled pic.twitter.com/7uOrurCDLsFebruary 12, 2020
Twitter user Rebecca Jennings tweeted the above gem, sharing the ridiculous hack this unidentified TikToker came up with to solve the problem. You need to cross the two phones over each other, one sitting vertically and the other horizontally so that the horizontal phone can film horizontally and the vertical one can film... you get the idea. Then hold them in place with a rubber band – and voila!
We admire the Blue Peter-style initiative at play here, and wonder if it will provoke any tech manufacturers into tweaking the smartphone camera somehow to create a similar effect. After all, the Samsung has already tackled the screen rotation issue head on with its invention of a TV that literally spins on its axis to rotate from horizontal to vertical, so it's clearly an issue that's on at least one tech giant's radar.
Multi aspect ratio square camera iPhone sensors have been high on my wish list for years. Preview the Image in full screen at the time you shoot in what ever orientation you want and then go between vertical and horizontal without cropping in.February 12, 2020
One user claims to have solved the problem already, with his tongue-in-cheek pitch to Apple.
If only Apple had run with the idea I pitched them pic.twitter.com/aU5bm0Qy7qFebruary 13, 2020
Sure, the rubber band trick looks slightly hilarious in practice, but all innovation has to start somewhere, right? And heavy social media users are often the ones to invent hacks that fill in the gaps in the tech until the technology is tweaked properly. If you're looking for more inspiration, these 5 easy ways to transform your social media videos will have you creating a mobile masterpiece in no time.
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