WhatsApp status video, the full video, no crop

How long a status video can be, and which part length to choose

WhatsApp's Help Center says status videos can be up to 90 seconds long, in the 3GP or MPEG-4 format (WhatsApp). A longer video has to be trimmed with the slider at the top of the status editor, and whatever falls outside it is not posted. Split into parts of 90 seconds or less, all of it fits, and every part made here is an MP4, which is MPEG-4.

90 seconds is set when the page opens, for the fewest parts. Choose 60 or 30 seconds if you would rather post shorter clips. The video is split into equal parts no longer than the length you pick, so you never end up with a two second leftover at the end. For example:

To post only one stretch of a long video, open Use only part of the video first. The parts are then made from that stretch.

Why a sideways video looks small on status

Status videos are watched on a phone held upright, which is a 9:16 shape. A sideways 16:9 video placed on that screen fills only about a third of its height, our own arithmetic, with empty space above and below. Turning the phone or zooming in cuts off the sides.

This tool makes the video 9:16 before you post it. Your whole picture stays in the middle, and the space above and below is filled with a soft, blurred copy of the same video, so the screen is full and nothing is cut off. If you prefer plain bars, choose Black or White.

How the parts join up

Every part is made from the original video, and each one starts on the frame right after the last frame of the part before it, so no frame is skipped or shown twice. Each joint is moved to the start of a frame for that, so the parts can differ by a fraction of a second. Exact joints are possible because the picture is encoded again for the new 9:16 frame anyway.

AAC or MP3 sound, the usual kind, is copied as it is. It is stored in short blocks of a few hundredths of a second each, and each part keeps only the blocks that lie wholly inside it, so up to one such block can be missing at each joint.

The files are named in order, such as myvideo-9x16-part-1-of-3.mp4, so they also sort correctly in your gallery or Files app.

File size, quality and mobile data

Each part is an H.264 MP4, the kind of video every phone plays. Its bitrate follows your original: about the same bits for each pixel of real picture, and far fewer for the blurred background. In our tests, a 1080p video recorded at about 9 Mbps made parts of about 28 MB a minute at 1080p and about 13 MB a minute at 720p; a video recorded at a higher bitrate makes bigger parts.

WhatsApp's Help Center also says HD media isn't supported for statuses, and that status videos may look lower in quality than the original (WhatsApp). So the extra detail of 1080p may not reach your viewers anyway, and 720p, under Size, is a sensible choice on mobile data or a full phone: the parts are about half the size and quicker to make.

All the parts stay in the page until you download them, so a phone has to hold them together; above about 200 MB in all, the tool warns you first. For a very long video, choose 720p, or make it a stretch at a time with Use only part of the video and download each batch before the next.

Doing it on your phone

On Android, open this page in Chrome. Each part you download is saved with your other downloads, which the Files app lists (Google). Then open WhatsApp, add a status and choose the parts from your phone's videos or files.

On an iPhone, use Safari 26 or later. Safari saves downloads to the Downloads folder in the Files app (Apple). Keep the screen on while the parts are made; the tool asks the browser to keep it awake where it can.