App Invasion: Kiss vertical videos goodbye with Horizon for iOS

Hey you. Yes, you. Are you recording a video with your iPhone? And are you really holding your phone vertically? Stop right there. Just stop. Are you aware that you’re holding your phone the wrong way? That this hilariously cute video of your cat stalking a pair of your nasty socks will look terrible when you share it with your friends because you’re limiting your camera’s capture range to just a portion of what it can actually do?

Look, it’s not your fault. It’s easier to hold your phone with one hand, and you’re used to taking photos that way. The problem is that videos are meant to be viewed horizontally, so capturing them vertically means that they don’t play back as nicely as they could. You know those pesky black panels that sometimes frame your videos? Those panels are there because the video was shot vertically.

I’m here to help. Go to the Apple’s App Store and download Horizon, a $2 offering from Evil Window Dog that automatically captures video in landscape orientation, no matter which way you’re holding your phone. It takes advantage of the iPhone’s built-in gyroscope and auto-levels the video. You can hold your phone upright, sideways, or even rotate it around, and your video will stay parallel to the ground.

All you have to do is pick your view mode—rotate with a fixed frame size, scale for a maximum viewport, or disable it for no correction—and then shoot. If you have the Rotate and Scale option selected, Horizon adjusts the frame as you rotate to maintain the same aspect ratio.

Apart from video orientation, the app also includes eight fun filters, supports AirPlay mirroring, and lets you export videos through your favorite social media accounts. All videos are saved to your Camera Roll, too. A recent update to Horizon introduced video stabilization, making it even more awesome than it was at launch.

Sure, launching another app to record video instead of your default Camera is another thing you would need to remember, but your videos will improve and you won’t have to worry about holding your phone the proper way. Your friends will thank you, too.