Merging portrait and landscape videos

When you join tall and wide clips, they need to share one output shape. Merge Videos fits each clip inside that frame with black bars where needed, keeping the whole picture visible.

The examples below come from real Chrome exports of the same two synthetic clips: a wide clip first, then a tall clip.

Choose the shape before merging

Open Merge Videos and choose Add Videos.
Add your clips and arrange them in the order you want.
When their shapes differ, use the Shape menu below the list. Choose Same as first video, Portrait (tall) or Landscape (wide).
Choose Merge Videos. Play the result to check both shapes, then choose Download Video.

What each choice looks like

Same as first video

This follows the first clip’s displayed shape, including its rotation. It keeps smaller first clips at their original size and scales larger ones down to a long side of at most 1920 pixels. Reordering the first clip changes this default.

Tall test clip fitted inside the 1920 by 1080 output selected by the first wide clip, with black bars on both sides and the complete test pattern visible. — Same as first video: 1920 × 1080 in this example. The tall clip has bars at the sides.

Portrait (tall)

This makes a 1080 × 1920 video. A wide clip fits across the middle, with black space above and below it.

Wide test clip fitted across a tall output, with black bars above and below and the complete test pattern visible. — Portrait: 1080 × 1920. The wide clip stays whole.

Landscape (wide)

This makes a 1920 × 1080 video. A tall clip fits in the middle, with black space on either side. It matches the default in this example because our first clip is already wide.

Tall test clip in the fixed landscape output with black side bars and the complete test pattern visible. — Landscape: 1920 × 1080, regardless of which clip comes first.

Which shape should you choose?

Portrait is a useful starting point for viewing on upright phones. Landscape suits TVs, laptops and wide players. These are viewing suggestions, not guarantees about a platform’s upload rules.

If most of your clips share a shape, put one of those first and use Same as first video. That gives the matching clips more of the frame. You can reduce bars on future videos by recording them in the same orientation.

Why the black bars stay

A wide rectangle cannot fill a tall one without cutting off the sides or stretching the picture. Merge Videos preserves the proportions and fits the whole clip inside instead. There is no crop, zoom or blurred-background control.

Fixed Portrait and Landscape outputs can enlarge small clips, so they may look softer. If you want to crop a clip beforehand, use an editor you already trust and check that the important parts remain visible.

These dimensions and fitting examples were checked in desktop Chrome. Real-phone HDR colour, audio sync, touch controls and saving to Photos or Gallery still need separate checks. iPhone and iPad require iOS 26 or later.

To remove pauses or skip an unwanted section first, follow the guide to trimming clips before merging.