Platform mechanics
Short-form video
Vertical or square video typically 15–90 seconds long, optimised for mobile feed consumption — TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn video, and X video.
Short-form video is the dominant content format on mobile-feed-driven platforms. Most platforms cap or strongly prefer 15–90 seconds (TikTok up to 10 minutes but optimal 15–60s; Reels up to 90s; Shorts up to 60s). Short-form rewards a strong hook in the first 1–3 seconds, sustained pacing across the body, and a payoff or CTA in the last few seconds. Captions on-screen are critical because most feed traffic plays muted by default. Algorithms heavily weight watch-time-as-percentage-of-length, which favours shorter, more-rewatchable clips over near-cap-length videos with weaker retention.
Related terms
Hook (short-form video)
The opening 1–3 seconds (audio + on-screen text) of a short-form video, which determines whether feed viewers swipe past…
Auto Reframe
An AI feature that converts a horizontal (16:9) source video to vertical (9:16) or square (1:1) by tracking the active s…
Captions / Subtitles
On-screen text rendered over short-form video showing what the speaker is saying. Critical because most feed traffic pla…
Retention (video)
The percentage of viewers who keep watching at each point in a video. Platform algorithms use the retention curve — espe…