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# How To Preview YouTube's Dual Stream Vertical Crop

Use this when your stream goes to YouTube and you want to see what YouTube's vertical copy will show before you go live.

YouTube **Dual stream** sends a vertical 9:16 copy of your live stream to viewers in the Shorts feed. By default it is a center crop that keeps only the middle third of a 16:9 picture, so a corner facecam, side guest tiles or an edge logo get cut. Upstream's **Preview as** shows exactly what stays.

| YouTube vertical layout | What phones show | Preview in Upstream |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Center crop (default) | The middle third at full height, about 608 × 1080 of a 1920 × 1080 stream | Yes |
| Fit to phone width | The whole picture, shrunk to about a third of the screen height | Yes |
| Stacked | Two parts of the picture, one above the other | No |

## Before you start

- Your stream goes to **YouTube**, as the main destination or a multistream destination.
- Your stream uses a horizontal resolution, like **1080p (Horizontal)**.
- **Dual stream** is on in YouTube Studio. It's on by default for streams you start with a stream key from the **Live Control Room**. For streams started with **Connect with YouTube**, it's off unless you switch it on before going live.

## Steps

1. Open your stream and go to **Stream designer**.
2. In the right sidebar, click **Design**. Under **Window**, open **Preview as**.
3. Choose **YouTube vertical: center crop**. The dimmed sides are cut on phones, and the dashed outline is what stays.
4. Move anything important, like your facecam, title or logo, inside the outline.
5. Choose **YouTube vertical: fit to phone width** to check that your text is still readable at phone size.
6. In **Live Studio**, use the **Preview as** menu at the top right of the canvas to check guest layouts. With three tiles side by side, the center crop keeps only the middle one.
7. Click **Open full preview** in the preview banner to see the vertical copy in a phone frame.

![Preview as in Stream designer showing YouTube's center crop on a 1920 × 1080 canvas](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/-/3/d/1/5/3d1572e4e8c19800/dual-stream-1-designer-preview_e1fn46.png)

![Preview as menu in Live Studio with the YouTube vertical options](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/-/3/d/1/5/3d1572e4e8c19800/dual-stream-2-live-studio-prev_kpe8px.png)

![Full preview of YouTube's center crop in a phone frame](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/-/3/d/1/5/3d1572e4e8c19800/dual-stream-3-browser-preview_1g59864.png)

When you're done, choose **Stream canvas** or click **Exit preview**. The preview never changes your stream. It still goes out at its own resolution, like 1920 × 1080.

## Send your own 9:16 stream instead (optional)

YouTube can take a second, vertical stream from Upstream instead of cropping your 16:9 picture.

1. Click **Create stream**, choose **YouTube**, and set **Resolution & Orientation** to **1080p (Vertical)**.
2. In YouTube Studio, open your horizontal stream in the **Live Control Room** and go to the **Stream** tab.
3. On the vertical preview, change **Auto** to **Encoder**.
4. In the **Stream key** dropdown, pick your vertical Upstream stream if you use **Connect with YouTube**. With **Manual setup**, pick a key and paste it into the vertical stream's **Stream key** field.
5. Start both streams in Upstream, check both previews in the Live Control Room, then go live.

![Creating a vertical YouTube stream in Upstream with 1080p (Vertical) and a stream key](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/-/3/d/1/5/3d1572e4e8c19800/dual-stream-4-vertical-stream-_1v7q6b9.png)

Set this up before you go live, because YouTube can't add the vertical format after a stream starts. Each stream uses one of your stream slots.

## If it does not work

- **No Preview as option:** your stream doesn't go to YouTube, or it uses a vertical resolution.
- **YouTube crops differently than the preview:** the zoom or position was changed in YouTube Studio's **Edit layout**. Upstream previews YouTube's default framing.
- **You don't want a vertical copy:** in the **Live Control Room**, open **Stream** > **Stream settings** and switch off **Dual stream** before you go live.
- **No links or ads on phones:** YouTube doesn't show clickable links or run live ads on the vertical copy.

## Related

- [How To Do a Vertical Live Stream for YouTube Shorts](https://help.upstream.so/en/article/how-to-do-a-vertical-live-stream-for-youtube-shorts-9im8i0/)
- [How To Livestream 24/7 On YouTube Shorts](https://help.upstream.so/en/article/how-to-livestream-247-on-youtube-shorts-ppz3hj/)
- [What YouTube's Dual stream crop cuts, and how to avoid it](https://blog.upstream.so/blog/youtube-dual-stream/)
- [YouTube Help: Get started with live streaming](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2474026)