What you need to know
- Chasing engagement, Disney Plus is ready to debut its short-form content feature: Verts.
- Verts will display clips from shows and movies relevant to your tastes, giving users the choice to save the clip for later or to hop into that show/movie immediately.
- Disney Plus says it plans to expand Verts with more offerings, such as content from other creators, content types, and more.
Disney Plus is rolling out a new feature that U.S. users will notice very soon when opening the app on their phones.
Disney Plus is getting on the scrollable, short-form video train, as the platform announces “Verts.” As you might surmise from the name, Verts are Disney Plus’ new vertical, short-form video content that will be present on the UI’s toolbar at the bottom of the app. The press release states users can tap on Verts and immediately drop into “a vertical video feed and can swipe through a stream of scenes and moments from movies and shows.”
Disney states the inclusion of Verts is to help users find “what to watch next” a little easier than before. It also highlights this “modern” approach to showcasing content, which just follows along the lines of many other platforms with vertical, short-form content. When watching a Vert, Disney Plus users can either save the video to watch later or they can begin watching the full version (whether that be a movie or a show).
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The company adds that Verts utilizes an “advanced algorithm” in its recommendation engine. In short, the service will try to make sure what it’s showing you in Verts remains relevant and “personalized” in some way. While Verts are launching this week, Disney Plus sees this feature playing a “key role” moving forward. Verts will primarily cover Disney’s entertainment; however, there are plans to add content creators, content types, and “other” storytelling formats.
Engagement is everything
It’s been roughly two months since we first heard that Disney Plus wanted to go the short-form video route. The company reportedly announced its ambitions during CES 2026. A Disney executive present during the conference said that its take on short-form content shouldn’t feel “disjointed.” More importantly, there was interest expressed in showing users “original short-form programming” through Verts.
For context, these were the words delivered by Disney Entertainment and ESPN’s EVP of product management, Erin Teague. The ESPN part is important, as the sports-focused service introduced Verts months ago. They work the same way: showing users short-form content on sports they likely watch and read about on ESPN. Disney Plus users are getting a new feature, but they were also faced with a price hike before 2025 ended.
Android Central’s Take
Verts are a strange one for me. Let me preface what I’m going to say by saying that I rarely interact with Verts on ESPN. These are often “vertical videos” that are just clipped from a sports show or SportsCenter. It doesn’t work well with the vertical aspect, since SportsCenter is on a TV—it’s wide for a TV. That aside, I think Verts could be good every once in a while when I’m not caught up with what Disney Plus is coming out with. But I usually keep myself informed since I watch it; I watch the shows, the movies, so I probably won’t want to sit through more “clips” or trailers again.
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