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Thumbnail Safe Zones
All videos should be edited with the safe zone in mind, so the 9:16 reel thumbnail will also display properly in feed layouts
The “safe zone” is the area in your video that won’t be covered by UI overlays and won’t be cut off by cropping.
Explanation
Meta, Instagram & TikTok all have elements overlaid over the video player: like buttons, share buttons, text, etc. These are on the right hand size and the top and bottom of the player.
Meta in particularly will display the video thumbnail as a vertical video (9:16) it’ll fit perfectly for reels, but the top and bottom will need to be cropped to fit the feed placement, which is either a 4:5 or 1:1.
You can always edit multiple versions specific to feeds or reels/stories, but the more efficient option is to edit it as a vertical video (9:16) and allow Meta to auto-crop for you to fit the other places. But this only works if you are editing with the safe zone in mind, otherwise important parts of your video will be cropped out!!!
So this means, making sure that your captions, text overlays, and your subjects (people’s faces and products) are all in the middle of the clip. When our creators film, we typically ask them to leave space above their head so that we have an easier time with the safe zone.
Here’s an example:
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