I opened Disney+ and a vertical feed was waiting—swipe, clip, swipe—with my thumb already deciding what to watch. For the first time in years the platform felt less like a film library and more like a fast-moving social stream. The realization landed: Disney just invited your phone to steal more of your downtime.
I write about streaming shifts for a living, and I want to walk you through what this change means for you and for the industry. You’ll get the essentials, a few reasons Disney made this move, and the one behavior to watch for when platforms start thinking like social apps.
What I noticed when Verts showed up on my phone
I tapped the app and was met with a vertical scroll of short clips—snippets from Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, and classics. This is Verts: a vertically scrolling video feed inside the Disney+ mobile app that stitches together short clips, highlights, and previews so you can swipe until something hooks you.
Clips can be saved to your watchlist or open the episode or movie directly. Disney says the feed is driven by an algorithm that personalizes clips based on viewing habits—so the more you watch, the more precise the suggestions become.
What is Verts on Disney+?
Verts is Disney’s short-form feed—think short clips pulled from a century of content, tailored to your tastes by an internal recommendation engine. It’s designed to turn discovery into a fast, thumb-driven habit rather than a slow search through menus.
How do I use Verts on Disney+?
You swipe vertically to cycle clips, tap to jump into the full episode or movie, and tap a button to add something to your watchlist. It’s built into the Disney+ mobile app and is rolling out in the United States as part of a staged release.
Is Verts basically TikTok inside Disney+?
Yes and no. The UI borrows the endless-scroll, algorithm-forward mechanics pioneered by TikTok and Instagram Reels, but the content is Disney-owned clips and previews rather than native creator videos—at least for now. Disney has hinted that creator and fandom-connected content could arrive later.
I watched people swap from Reels to Verts at a café
That shift tells you what Disney is chasing: attention on phones. Platforms such as TikTok and Instagram Reels rewired expectations—short, personalized loops keep people scrolling. Netflix has been testing a vertical feed too; the pattern is clear: streaming services are borrowing social mechanics to make discovery faster and stickier.
Verts is meant to be a conveyor belt of moments—fast access to emotional beats, easter eggs, and nostalgia that nudge you toward full episodes or movies.
Early tests inside Disney properties reportedly showed higher engagement, and Disney’s blog framed Verts as a modern way to bring fans into its catalogue. That catalogue is unusually deep: Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, National Geographic, and decades of animation give Disney a huge pool of micro-content to repurpose.
I saw the beta reports and industry chatter about how people use feeds
Test data matters: when a feed lifts daily active use, executives pay attention. Disney’s strategy is both simple and strategic—give users a reason to open the app every day, then nudge them from short clips into paid viewing time or watchlists.
That nudge can be powerful. Verts can act as a magnet for short attention spans, turning casual taps into appointment viewing. The risk is real: the same mechanics that boost engagement can turn leisure into habitual scrolling.
There’s also a business angle. If Verts increases time in-app, it strengthens Disney+’s hand whether the company pushes subscriptions, ad tiers, or creator partnerships. It also invites comparisons with competitors: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube all face the same pressure to keep attention on mobile.
So what should you watch for? Expect more preview-style clips, quicker promotions for new releases, and possibly fandom-driven creator clips added to the feed. If you care about discovery, Verts makes it shorter and more impulsive. If you care about intentional watching, you’ll need to guard when and how you use the feed.
Disney has rewritten a small part of the streaming playbook by borrowing a behavior that already rules mobile—will you treat Verts as a fast way to find the next movie, or as a time sink that pulls you away from longer viewing?