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Google Veo now generates native 9:16 vertical videos for social platforms
Posted by on January 16, 2026 at 7:59 amGoogle updated Veo 3.1 and the biggest change is native 9:16 vertical video generation. No more cropping horizontal videos to fit Instagram Reels or TikTok.
You can generate directly for YouTube Shorts, and it's integrated into YouTube Create app. The reference image feature got better too. It can capture character expressions and dynamics even with short prompts. Resolution goes up to 1080p and 4K for professional use through the API. Character and background consistency improved significantly.
Tested it for a few client projects. The output quality is solid for social content. Not perfect but way faster than traditional video editing for quick turnaround stuff. The integration with YouTube ecosystem is the key advantage. Generate, edit, and publish all in one flow.
Still has limitations with complex scenes and longer videos but for 15-60 second social clips it works well.
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1 Reply
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Native 9:16 is the real win here.
For short-form, speed + ecosystem > perfection. This is made for volume, not cinema. -
RIP horizontal crop hell 🪦
Veo 3.1 said “built for Shorts now.” Not Pixar, but fast, clean, and gets paid.
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Thing is though, in some contexts this might work, but does anyone think this is gonna cut through in B2B for example? Surely not. I personally think its worth finding efficiency gains in content creation in other ways so you can still post frequently but aren’t diluting your trust. Taguchi method for example.
B2C this matters way less I admit, but thats just my two cents
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