The Walt Disney Company has begun rolling out a new vertical video experience called Verts on Disney+, designed to help mobile users discover content more quickly.
The feature, which became available to subscribers in the United States this week, can be accessed through a new icon in the app’s navigation bar. It opens a feed of vertically formatted short clips taken from movies and series available on the platform.
Verts operates through a swipe-based interface similar to those used by social media apps. Viewers can browse through short scenes and moments, add titles they find interesting to their Watchlist, or jump directly into the full episode or film.
The feature was first unveiled during Disney’s 2026 Global Tech & Data Showcase and was developed as part of the platform’s broader mobile-first content discovery strategy.
Verts is powered by a new recommendation algorithm that analyzes user behavior to generate a personalized feed for each viewer. According to Disney, internal testing on Disney+ and the implementation of a similar vertical format on ESPN have already shown increased engagement, suggesting that short, mobile-friendly video formats encourage users to explore more content within the platform.
The company describes Verts as the first phase of a broader transformation. In the future, the feature may expand to include new storytelling formats, deeper personalization, and content connected to Disney’s fan communities. Disney also notes that the format is intended to make its century-spanning storytelling catalog easier to explore and rediscover.
More broadly, the move reflects a growing industry trend toward vertical video formats, which have gained massive popularity in recent years through platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. As mobile viewing continues to dominate global media consumption, streaming services are increasingly experimenting with vertical and short-form video experiences to adapt discovery tools to changing audience habits.
