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How to turn a vertical phone video into a desktop wallpaper (and back)

Phone videos are tall (9:16); desktop screens are wide (16:9). Put one on the other and most of the screen is empty. There are two good fixes, depending on which way you're going.

A vertical video on a desktop screen

Cropping a tall video to fill a wide screen throws away most of it. Instead, keep the whole video in the middle and fill the sides with a soft, blurred, zoomed copy of the same clip. Because the blurred copy moves with the video, the whole screen feels alive.

Fit: black bars

Blur fill

The same vertical clip on a 16:9 screen, both made with Wallsmith.

A wide video as a phone wallpaper

Going the other way, pick a tall slice of the wide video and make it fill the phone screen. Choose the slice with care: on a phone, the clock and widgets cover the top, so keep the interesting part in the middle or lower half.

Vertical clip used above

A 9:16 phone wallpaper cut from the wide scene

How to do it in Wallsmith

1. Open the video. On the Frame tab, under Screen shape, pick 16:9 (or Screen) for a desktop wallpaper, or 9:16 phone for a phone wallpaper.
2. For a tall video on a wide screen, choose Blur fill under Fit. For a phone wallpaper, choose Fill and drag the box on the preview to choose the slice.
3. Phone videos are often noisy or soft; turn on AI upscaling on the Enhance tab (Real / 3D for camera footage) and export.
4. Copy the MP4 to your phone and set it as a live or video wallpaper with your phone's wallpaper settings or a wallpaper app.

Free or Pro? Any screen shape with Fill or Fit is free. Blur fill is part of Wallsmith Pro ($5 once).