Tip: How to view full-screen YouTube videos on the Galaxy S8 or Galaxy Note 8

When Samsung introduced the tall and narrow Infinity display on the Galaxy S8, the YouTube app had a dedicated button to make videos fit the entire width of the screen and remove the black bars on the sides. That button disappeared with an update to the app, leaving S8 and Note 8 owners unable to fully utilize their phone's display for viewing videos. Or did it? As it turned out, the button was only replaced with a different way of doing things for all phones with tall, nearly bezel-free displays.

Pinch-to-zoom is the answer

Now, to make videos fill the entire screen, you can use pinch-to-zoom gestures when a video is playing in landscape orientation, just like you would when trying to zoom in or out on photos in the gallery. To make a video fill the screen, zoom in, which is to say place two fingers on the screen and move them away from each other. To zoom back out, do the opposite, and voila.

Sadly, zooming in on videos still means that part of the top and bottom get cut, since most videos are made for the 16:9 aspect ratio rather than the 18:9/18:5:9 aspect ratios seen on these phones, which is unlikely to change anytime soon. But for videos where that doesn't bother you, pinch and zoom is how you enjoy truly full-screen videos on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8.

Some of you were no doubt aware of this functionality already, but those who weren't are now in the loop as well. Go try it out, and for more such tips, check out our dedicated tips and tricks section!

Related: Use all apps in fullscreen mode on the S8 or Note 8's tall display