Disney is about to turn its flagship streaming app into something that looks a lot more like TikTok than a traditional on‑demand library. Instead of a quiet grid of movies and shows, Disney+ will soon open onto a vertically scrolling feed of short clips designed to keep people swiping. The shift promises higher engagement and new ways to promote franchises, but it also risks turning streaming into the same addictive, fragmented experience that already dominates phones.
From streaming hub to endless scroll
Disney is not hiding what it wants here: it wants Disney+ to feel less like a static catalog and more like a daily habit built around quick hits of content. Internal framing describes the app evolving into something closer to a phone home screen, with a prominent vertical feed that surfaces short clips from across the library instead of asking viewers to dig through rows of tiles, a change that has already been teased in posts about how Disney+ is about to feel “a lot less like a streaming service and a lot more like your phone’s home screen,” attributed to Jan. In practice, that means the first thing many subscribers will see is not a feature film or series recommendation, but a vertical video carousel that behaves much like TikTok or Instagram Reels.
The company is explicit that this is about daily engagement, not just discovery. Disney+ is already one of the leading subscription streamers, yet it trails rivals in how often people open the app, which is why executives are betting that a vertical feed can turn the service into a “must‑visit daily destination” for subscribers who currently dip in only for big releases, a goal that has been spelled out in coverage of daily engagement. That ambition is understandable in a market where attention is the real currency, but it is also what makes the change so potentially disruptive for how streaming feels to use.
Borrowing TikTok’s playbook, with Disney’s IP
On a technical level, Disney is lifting the most successful interaction pattern in modern media and grafting it onto its own ecosystem. Short vertical videos will roll out to Disney+ later this year after a similar format, known as ESPN Verts, was added to the revamped ESPN app, with Short clips there already used to highlight sports moments and drive viewers into longer broadcasts. On Disney+, the same template will be applied to Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, and other brands, turning iconic scenes and character moments into swipeable snippets that can be watched in seconds.
The strategy is being shaped at the product level by Erin Teague, who serves as executive vice president for product management for Disney Entertainment and ESPN. In interviews about the feature, Teague has described how the vertical feed will mix trailers, bespoke shorts, and possibly even interactive elements, all tuned to “core user behaviors” that Disney sees on mobile, a vision that has been outlined in detail in coverage Based on her comments. The company is not just copying TikTok’s format; it is trying to weaponize its own intellectual property inside that format, which could be powerful, but also raises questions about how aggressively it will slice up and repackage stories that were meant to be watched in full.
The mobile‑first gamble and who gets left out
Disney is clear that this vertical feed is aimed squarely at phones, not living room televisions. Executives have acknowledged that People watching content on a TV are not the target audience for vertical, and that They are instead chasing the mobile crowd that already spends hours in portrait‑mode apps, a distinction that has been emphasized in reporting on how People use Disney+. That means the most aggressive version of this feed will live inside the Disney+ mobile app, where it can be opened quickly, scrolled in spare moments, and fed by constant algorithmic recommendations.
The risk is that a service built around long‑form storytelling starts to feel like every other attention‑hacking platform on a smartphone. Some early commentary has already framed the change as a jarring break from what subscribers expect, with one reaction literally opening with “Stop the world, we want to get off,” a line that captures the whiplash of seeing a family‑oriented streaming app chase the same dopamine loops as TikTok, a sentiment that has been widely shared in pieces that quote Stop the phrase. For viewers who primarily watch on big screens, the move may feel irrelevant or even hostile if the interface starts prioritizing content that simply does not translate to a 55‑inch TV.
Turning curation into compulsion
Disney’s public language around the feature leans heavily on discovery and efficiency, but the mechanics it is adopting are the same ones that have made social feeds so hard to put down. Product leaders have talked about “integrating vertical video in ways that are native to core user behaviors” and evolving Disney+ into a “must‑visit daily destination,” language that mirrors the growth playbook of TikTok and YouTube Shorts and has been quoted in coverage of how Disney is thinking about the feature. The feed will not just recommend a movie; it will serve an endless chain of clips, each one an invitation to keep swiping instead of making a deliberate choice.
That shift from curation to compulsion is what worries me most. One critic has already argued that the addition of vertical video to one of the biggest streaming services is unwelcome, especially when it is “big on the mobile app,” a concern that reflects broader unease about turning every entertainment platform into a slot machine of short clips, as captured in reactions to how Disney is proceeding. When a service that once invited viewers to sit with a two‑hour film instead nudges them toward a 20‑second highlight reel, it is not just the interface that changes; it is the underlying relationship between viewer and story.
Bundling, Hulu, and the race to be “daily”
The vertical feed is also arriving as Disney reshapes its broader streaming bundle, which now tightly integrates Hulu and live television. Fubo’s current management team, led by co‑founder and CEO David Gandler, is set to run the merged Fubo and Hulu + Live TV businesses starting in February 5, 2026, a move that underscores how aggressively the company is consolidating its streaming footprint, according to details laid out in the entry on Fubo. As Hulu content and live channels become more deeply woven into Disney+, the temptation to use a vertical feed as a cross‑promotion engine for everything from prestige dramas to sports broadcasts will only grow.
Disney has already signaled that users “will begin to see further integrations of Hulu across the Disney+ app” and that this will be accompanied by product updates on the homepage and beyond, a roadmap that makes the new feed look like a central piece of a much larger redesign, as described in statements that begin with “Regarding the” future of the combined service and how Regarding the shutdown of standalone apps. In that context, the vertical feed is not a side experiment; it is a front door that can be used to steer attention across an entire streaming empire, which raises the stakes for how responsibly it is designed.
Chasing TikTok, competing with YouTube, reshaping habits
Disney is candid that this move is about competing directly with TikTok and YouTube for time on mobile screens. The company has framed the Introduction of Vertical Video Fee as a way to transform user engagement in 2026 and explicitly position Disney+ against those short‑form giants, a competitive posture that has been spelled out in coverage of how Introduction of Vertical is meant to work. That is why the feed will highlight not just movies and series, but also sports, reality, and other quick‑hit genres that lend themselves to snackable clips.
Internally, Disney has described this as a push to become a daily destination, with executives talking about how Disney+ Moves Into Vertical Video, Signaling a Push to Become a Daily Destination and how that shift aligns with broader efforts to keep subscribers inside the ecosystem, language that has been echoed in analysis of the company’s Moves Into Vertical strategy. The more time viewers spend swiping through branded clips, the more chances Disney has to upsell them on new releases, merchandise, or live events, which is smart business, but also a recipe for turning what used to be a lean‑back experience into something much more relentless.
ESPN’s test case and what comes next
Disney is not going into this blind; it already has a test case in ESPN. On ESPN, the Verts format has been used to package highlights and quick analysis into vertical clips that sit alongside full games and shows, a model that Disney now wants to replicate on its flagship entertainment app, as described in reports that note how Disney+ is getting a similar feed later this year. The early success of those sports clips in driving repeat visits appears to have convinced executives that the same pattern can work for scripted and animated content.
In interviews about the rollout, Erin Teague has reiterated to Deadline that the goal is to increase how often people open the Disney+ app and to surface content more efficiently, a message that has been summarized in coverage of her comments to Deadline. At the same time, industry observers have noted that Disney+ intros mobile vertical video, aims to become a daily user destination, a framing that captures both the ambition and the potential cost of this shift, as detailed in analysis of how Disney is positioning the feature. If the ESPN experiment is any guide, the vertical feed will succeed at pulling people back in, but it may also make it harder for viewers to step away, turning streaming into yet another arena where the scroll never really ends.
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