What the boxes are
Every vertical video app lays its own interface over the full frame: a caption block and creator name at the bottom left, the like, comment and share column down the right edge, a top bar for the feed tabs, and a progress bar or navigation strip along the bottom. Anything you put there is either covered or competing with a button. The checker shades those regions per app, so you can see at once which part of your frame is actually visible.
- TikTok: top 9 percent (feed tabs), bottom 9 percent (nav bar), the right column from about 40 percent down (icons), and the caption block across the bottom left.
- Instagram Reels: top 8 percent, bottom 10 percent, the right column from about 42 percent down, and the caption and audio line at the bottom left.
- YouTube Shorts: top 8 percent, a taller bottom band of about 14 percent for the title and channel line, and the right column from about 44 percent down.
The dashed rectangle is the intersection: roughly the left two thirds of the frame between 12 and 70 percent of its height. Text, logos, prices and the product itself belong inside it. Backgrounds, motion and anything you do not need read can fill the rest.
Why the zones are generous
The apps move these elements a little with every release and with every phone size, and captions grow taller when a creator writes more. The boxes here are drawn on the large side on purpose. A frame that clears them clears the real thing on the phones we tried, and a frame that only just clears a tighter template is the one that gets clipped next month.
What this checker does not do
It does not resize, crop or re-encode your video. It does not know your caption length, so it cannot tell you how tall your own caption block will be on the day. It does not send the frame anywhere. Reload the page and it is gone, because no copy existed anywhere but in the tab.
If you would rather not lay this out by hand
Hermoso renders vertical ads with the product and text already placed inside the safe area for the channel you are posting to, then schedules them to TikTok, Instagram and YouTube from one place. The safe zones above are the same ones its templates respect.
Frequently asked questions
What is the safe zone for TikTok?
Keep text and anything that must be read inside roughly the left two thirds of the frame, between about 12 and 72 percent of its height. The feed tabs cover the top, the caption block and creator name cover the bottom left, the icon column covers the right edge and the nav bar covers the bottom.
Is the safe zone the same for Reels and Shorts?
Close but not identical. Shorts reserves a taller strip at the bottom for the title and channel line, and Reels keeps a slightly narrower right column. The dashed area on this page is the part all three leave alone.
Can I load a video instead of a screenshot?
Yes. Drop a video file and the checker grabs a frame from about a second in, in your browser. If the format cannot be decoded by your browser, export one frame as an image and load that.
Is my frame uploaded?
No. The drawing happens in your browser, there is no network request carrying the image and nothing is stored.
Does it work for 4:5 or 1:1 posts?
The overlays are for full-screen 9:16 vertical video. A 4:5 or square post is shown inside the feed with the interface around it rather than over it, so there is no safe zone to check.
Hermoso makes the vertical ad with everything already inside the safe area, then schedules it. Start free, 250+ earnable free credits, no card.
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