Disney+ rolls out a TikTok-style “Verts” feed in the U.S. to keep you scrolling, and watching

Disney+ is borrowing a page straight out of TikTok’s playbook. The streaming service is rolling out “Verts,” a vertical, swipeable video feed in the U.S. that serves up short clips from movies and TV shows, and lets you jump into the full title with a single tap.

The move is aimed at a modern streaming headache: discovery. Disney+ has a library spanning more than 100 years of entertainment, and the company wants to turn its app into something you open throughout the day, not just at night when you’re ready to commit to an episode.

Verts lives inside the Disney+ mobile app and appears as its own icon in the navigation bar. Scroll, watch a moment, add it to your watchlist, or hit play on the full show. The pitch is simple: less browsing, more watching.

Disney+ brings “Verts” to iOS and Android in the U.S.

Disney says Verts is launching in the United States on the Disney+ app for iOS and Android. By placing it in the main navigation, rather than burying it in menus, Disney is signaling this isn’t a side experiment. It’s a new front door.

The feed starts with short scenes, standout moments, and bite-size excerpts pulled from titles already on Disney+. Instead of reading synopses or sitting through a full trailer, users get an instant feel for a show in seconds, built for the way people actually use phones.

Each clip comes with quick actions: add the title to your watchlist or jump directly into the full movie or episode. That bridge from short-form to long-form is the whole point. Disney isn’t chasing likes; it’s chasing play buttons.

Disney frames this as phase one, with plans to expand into additional formats and more personalized experiences. Translation: the company will watch the engagement numbers closely and scale up if the feed hooks people.

A recommendation algorithm is doing the heavy lifting

Disney is leaning hard on personalization, touting what it calls an advanced recommendation engine to tailor Verts to each user. The company’s message is clear: vertical video alone isn’t sticky, relevance is.

Disney says earlier tests, starting in August across Disney+ and ESPN, drove additional engagement. In streaming terms, that can mean more daily opens, more time spent in the app, more watchlist adds, and more starts triggered by a clip.

Verts is also a product answer to a familiar complaint: “There’s nothing to watch,” said by people staring at thousands of options. A swipeable feed turns active searching into passive discovery, react to a scene first, decide what to watch second.

But there’s a tradeoff. Hyper-personal feeds can narrow what you see, pushing the same franchises again and again if the algorithm learns you’ll bite. Disney hasn’t explained what guardrails, if any, it’s using to keep Verts from becoming a one-way funnel to the biggest blockbusters.

Netflix tried it first, now streamers are chasing TikTok behavior

Disney+ isn’t the first streamer to import social-media mechanics. Netflix has already experimented with vertical feeds of clips from its catalog, reflecting a broader industry shift: on phones, swiping feels more natural than navigating rows of thumbnails.

The comparison to TikTok and Instagram Reels is baked into the design. Short, vertical clips deliver instant payoff, and they’re tailor-made for “mobile-first” viewers who treat video as an endless stream rather than a scheduled sit-down.

There’s also an obvious marketing upside. A vertical clip is a trailer that doesn’t feel like an ad, because you chose it by scrolling. If the feed becomes too promotional, though, users may tune it out the same way they tune out repetitive previews.

The bigger question is how far streamers can “socialize” their apps without turning them into full-blown social networks. Too much scrolling, and you cannibalize long-form viewing. Too little, and you miss the daily habit that keeps subscriptions from getting canceled.

ESPN was the test lab, and Hulu is part of the bigger ecosystem

Disney says the Verts concept was introduced earlier on ESPN, where short-form highlights are a natural fit. Sports clips are built for quick hits; scripted TV is trickier, because the excerpt has to entice without spoiling the story or feeling like a tease.

Disney also says Verts personalization draws on content from Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN. For American audiences, Hulu is Disney’s more adult-leaning streaming service (think FX and next-day TV), and folding that data into recommendations hints at a more unified Disney streaming ecosystem behind the scenes.

The strategy is about habit. A vertical feed gives people something to do for three minutes on a commute or in line at a coffee shop, then, ideally, nudges them into a full episode later. That kind of daily touchpoint can be a powerful defense against churn.

It also raises an editorial challenge: choosing which “moments” represent a show. Done well, Verts can revive older titles and surface hidden gems. Done poorly, it flattens everything into interchangeable punchlines and action beats.

Creator content and AI video could be next, and that’s where it gets messy

Disney says Verts could eventually expand to include creator-made content tied to Disney fandoms. That would be a major shift from a controlled feed of official clips to something closer to a curated community, along with the brand-safety and moderation headaches that come with it.

The company has also floated the idea of working with OpenAI’s Sora to enable short videos featuring licensed characters, reportedly drawing from a list of more than 200 characters. The appeal is obvious: keep fan creativity inside Disney’s walls instead of letting it live entirely on TikTok or YouTube.

But generative AI adds a new layer of risk: who approves what’s “on brand,” how misuse is prevented, and how fast problematic content could spread in a short-form feed built for viral sharing. Disney hasn’t laid out how that would work, or whether AI-made clips would appear in Verts.

For now, Disney appears to be testing safer options, including original vertical programming designed for the format. If Verts is going to become a daily destination, Disney will need a steady stream of fresh clips, without turning the feed into a never-ending commercial for whatever it wants to push this week.