HBO Max Shorts iPhone Test: Vertical Video Feed Explained
Warner Bros. Discovery yesterday began testing HBO Max Shorts with a limited group of U.S. iPhone users: a vertically scrollable feed of scenes, trailers, and bonus clips drawn entirely from the existing HBO Max library. The feature is not original programming. It is existing content reformatted for vertical mobile playback, designed to pull subscribers from a 30-second clip into a full episode or series. Broader availability across devices and markets is planned, with no timeline attached.
The clips are not highlights from whatever is already trending. The Hollywood Reporter described the feed as "trimmings of existing HBO Max programming rendered into a new presentation ratio to push users toward long-form consumption." The stated goal, per Liesel Kipp, EVP of Product Management at Warner Bros. Discovery, is giving subscribers "new ways to browse, sample, and explore" the library. Warner Bros. Discovery has not disclosed how many users are in the current iOS test.
How the HBO Max Shorts vertical video feed works
Tap the Shorts icon on the bottom navigation menu and the app opens a vertical scroll of clips personalized to each user's watch history, according to The Futon Critic. The content mix spans trailers, bonus material, and library scenes, with the stated aim of surfacing titles from across the catalog rather than recirculating familiar names.
From any clip, users get two options: start the full title immediately or add it to My List for later, per The Futon Critic. Engadget confirmed both actions are available directly from the feed. The short is a doorway, not a destination.
The Shorts icon sits on the bottom navigation bar, the same strip iPhone users already use to reach core sections of the app, per Engadget. That placement keeps it one tap from anywhere in the app. The logic is simple: a browsing mode buried in a submenu gets ignored; one anchored to the main navigation gets used.
That placement also signals something about HBO Max's intent. The home screen grid of poster tiles and genre rows was designed for lean-back TV browsing. It works reasonably well on a big screen, less well on a phone held vertically with two minutes to kill. Shorts occupies the same navigation tier as Search, which is where a user already goes when the home screen isn't working. Putting both on the same bar acknowledges that mobile discovery needs different tools than the living room.
How the clips get made: AI flags candidates, editors choose
The production process has two distinct stages. First, an in-house AI tool uses machine learning algorithms and scene-level metadata to comb through thousands of hours of programming and suggest the most compelling, high-impact moments as candidates for the feed, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The tool generates a shortlist; it does not decide what gets published.
Human editors take it from there. Once the AI has flagged candidates, HBO Max editors select which clips best represent each title, prioritizing jaw-dropping moments, pivotal plot twists, and visually stunning sequences, per TV Technology. The selected clips are then rendered into a vertical video format for seamless playback, per TV Technology.
Deepna Devkar, HBO Max's SVP of Machine Learning Engineering, described the AI's purpose plainly in the company announcement: "We're thrilled to launch this application of AI to accelerate the creation of these clips and look forward to quickly expanding to make even more of our amazing content offering discoverable through this new feature," as quoted by The Futon Critic.
The acceleration argument matters here. A library the size of HBO Max's cannot be clipped manually at any useful speed. The AI handles the volume problem; the editors handle the quality problem. HBO Max is not commissioning new content to populate the feed. It is converting existing premium IP into a mobile-native format, which means the cost structure looks nothing like a short-form content strategy, and the editorial check on the AI's output is what keeps it from becoming a pure recommendation engine dressed up as clips.
Ask HBO Max launches separately, on Android
Running parallel to the iOS Shorts test, Warner Bros. Discovery also launched Ask HBO Max for adult subscribers in the U.S., initially on Android, accessible from the app's search page. The Futon Critic reported that select subscribers can type prompts like "in the mood for a comedy," "dysfunctional family drama," or "best movie for a girls night in" to surface relevant titles.
Engadget called it a chatbot. Warner Bros. Discovery's preferred framing is that "this experience uses natural language understanding and semantic search." Both descriptions are essentially accurate. The feature will eventually expand to additional devices and markets, the company said, without specifying when.
Kipp's statement covered both launches with the same frame: "These new mobile features build on intuitive, familiar behaviors subscribers use every day. Both 'HBO Max Shorts' and 'conversational search' translate those behaviors into new ways to discover programming across the HBO Max service, making it easier and more seamless for subscribers to find something to watch," per The Hollywood Reporter.
The two features address different versions of the same problem. Shorts handles the passive case: someone opens the app without a title in mind, scrolls until something catches their eye, and drops into a full episode. Ask HBO Max handles the active case: someone knows the mood they're in but not the title, and types it out. Together, they sketch a picture of a platform rebuilding its discovery layer around how people actually use phones, not how they use a remote.
What the HBO Max iOS test leaves unanswered
Several things remain unknown. Warner Bros. Discovery has not said how many users are in the current iOS test, and no performance data of any kind has been shared, per Engadget. TechCrunch noted only that the company plans to expand across more devices and markets, no specifics attached.
One piece of the roadmap is documented: TV Technology reports that HBO Max Shorts is expected to incorporate sports content as the feature develops. That expansion would change what the product is. A library-browsing clip feed is evergreen and passive; a sports-adjacent clip feed is time-sensitive and event-driven. Clipping a scene from a prestige drama and clipping the third-quarter highlights from a live game are different editorial problems entirely. Whether the same AI-plus-editor workflow scales to sports content is an open question.
The more immediate question is simpler: does a vertical clip feed built from existing programming actually move subscribers into longer viewing sessions? The design points that direction, but the test results will determine whether Shorts earns a permanent spot on that navigation bar or gets quietly retired. The broader rollout, when it comes, will tell the story.
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