Following months of testing, the ‘Smart Cropping’ option is now available within the Facebook Content Studio. Through machine learning, the tool can auto-edit videos to focus on content of specific importance. This development is implemented to help users save time and increase video performance.

Facebook comments on the development:

“Smart Crop is a tool within Creator Studio that will reframe and size the aspect ratios of your videos from 16:9 horizontal video to either 1:1 or 4:5 for feed. This feature optimizes for the main subject in the content, keeping the main subjects centered and in-frame. You will be able to publish this video directly within Creator Studio, and can review the reframed video prior to publishing. You can also compare the reframed version with the original prior to publishing to decide which version you’d like to publish.”

And in terms of how to use Smart Crop, Facebook shares the following:

  1. Automatically Crop Your Videos in Creator Studio
  2. To automatically crop your videos open Creator Studio.
  3. Click the Create New button on the top left corner of the page.
  4. Click the Upload Video button on the dropdown.
  5. Select the video you would like to upload and fill in the video details.
  6. Click the Edit Video button on top of your video thumbnail.
  7. Select Smart Crop Video from the drop down menu.
  8. Choose the size you would like to reframe your video to and click Save.
  9. You have now set up your video to be reframed.
  10. Click Next to continue to publishing options.

Matt Navarra first shared a look at how the feature will look back in March 2021: