Netflix Is About to Launch Its Vertical Video Feed

The funny thing about smartphone addiction is that it makes low-effort tasks feel totally productive. When I finally quit doomscrolling through Instagram and TikTok to watch an actual movie or TV show, I feel like I’ve just spent the afternoon studying physics. Platforms like Netflix, which could once be seen as time-wasting entertainment, now seem like antidotes to endless, useless scrolling.

But Netflix doesn’t seem to appreciate its new role. Instead, the company apparently sees short-form video apps—and smartphones themselves—as a direct threat to its business, and is jumping on the bandwagon. It’s not only that Netflix is reportedly now making content with phone scrollers in mind, encouraging creators to craft dialogue that makes their shows and movies easy to understand even if you’re not actually paying attention; Netflix also wants to position its mobile app as an actual competitor to TikTok and Instagram by introducing a short-form video feed

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