{"id":20214,"date":"2026-07-28T20:30:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T15:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=20214"},"modified":"2026-07-28T20:30:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T15:30:44","slug":"hbo-max-dips-toe-into-vertical-video-with-hbo-max-shorts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=20214","title":{"rendered":"HBO Max Dips Toe Into Vertical Video With &#8216;HBO Max Shorts&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/hbo-max\/\" id=\"auto-tag_hbo-max_1\" data-tag=\"hbo-max\">HBO Max<\/a> is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/business\/digital\/disney-creator-content-launches-vertical-video-verts-1236528489\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/business\/digital\/disney-creator-content-launches-vertical-video-verts-1236528489\/\">latest streamer getting into vertical video<\/a> \u2014 sort of.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe streamer on Tuesday launched two new mobile features in the U.S. The headline one is titled \u201cHBO Max Shorts,\u201d and is \u201cdesigned to help users discover something to watch by highlighting iconic and memorable scenes from the HBO Max library in a vertical, scrollable feed,\u201d per the platform.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tRight now, the feature is being tested with \u201cselect\u201d iOS users in the U.S. More devices and more markets will come, as will sports shorts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tUsers can tap the \u201cShorts\u201d icon on the bottom navigation menu to \u201cbrowse trailers, clips, and bonus content,\u201d the announcement continues. The algorithm will deliver vertical videos for you based on watch history. A user can then choose to watch the depicted series or film immediately, add it to their \u201cMy List,\u201d or do nothing at all.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe clips are created by an in-house AI tool, HBO Max says, \u201cwhich helps human editors select and verticalize content by using machine learning algorithms that utilize scene-level metadata to comb through thousands of hours of titles and suggests the most compelling, high-impact scenes for discovery.\u201d So, yes, there are real people involved in the process (at some point).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tTo be clear, HBO Max Shorts are not original vertical videos \u2014 not yet at least \u2014 they are simply <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/business\/digital\/netflix-new-vertical-video-feed-clips-1236580150\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/business\/digital\/netflix-new-vertical-video-feed-clips-1236580150\/\">trimmings of existing programming<\/a> rendered into a new presentation ratio.<\/p>\n<p>Deepna Devkar, senior vice president of machine learning engineering, said, \u201cWe\u2019re thrilled to launch this application of AI to accelerate the creation of these clips and look forward to quickly expanding to make even more of our amazing content offering discoverable through this new feature.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe other new feature in a test phase is called \u201cAsk HBO Max.\u201d It too uses AI to comb through content via \u201cnatural language,\u201d like \u201cin the mood for a comedy,\u201d \u201cdysfunctional family drama,\u201d or \u201cbest movie for a girls night in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cThese new mobile features build on intuitive, familiar behaviors subscribers use every day. Both \u2018HBO Max Shorts\u2019 and \u2018conversational search\u2019 translate those behaviors into new ways to discover programming across the HBO Max service, making it easier and more seamless for subscribers to find something to watch,\u201d said Liesel Kipp, executive vice president of product management, Warner Bros. Discovery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HBO Max is the latest streamer getting into vertical video \u2014 sort of. The streamer on Tuesday launched two new mobile features in the U.S. The headline one is titled \u201cHBO Max Shorts,\u201d and is \u201cdesigned to help users discover something to watch by highlighting iconic and memorable scenes from the HBO Max library in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Conversational_Search_group_PR-1-H-2026.jpg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}