How to stream your bracket vertically on TikTok and YouTube Shorts with OBS

Most people watching TikTok, YouTube Shorts or Instagram Live are holding their phone upright. Squeeze a normal 16:9 stream onto that screen and you get a thin strip with black bars, and the bracket gets hard to read. A vertical 9:16 stream fills the whole phone, so the matchups are big and easy to follow.

You don't need a second computer or a second copy of OBS for this. A free plugin called Aitum Vertical adds a second, vertical canvas to OBS Studio, and BracketTap has tall layouts made for it. You can even stream wide and vertical at the same time from one room, so everyone votes in the same bracket.

This guide builds on How to create a bracket and add it to your stream with OBS. If you haven't opened a room or added a Browser Source before, start there.

What you need

• OBS Studio 32 or later (free from obsproject.com)
• The free Aitum Vertical plugin (Step 2 shows where to get it)
• A BracketTap room, open on your phone or a second screen as the host
• A server URL and stream key from each platform you want to go live on vertically. TikTok only gives these to accounts with LIVE access, so check yours first.
• A computer with some power to spare. Two canvases means OBS encodes two videos at once.

Step 1: Pick a tall layout and copy the stream view link

1. On the host screen, open 📺 Party TV or streaming? Put it on the big screen (or the 📺 TV / Stream button once the game has started).
2. Under Layout, pick Tall · QR top or Tall · QR bottom.
3. Pick a Background. Going over a camera? Transparent is the one you want (more in the tips below).
4. Tap Copy link. A tall link ends in &layout=top or &layout=bottom, like https://brackettap.com/stream/ABC234?bg=transparent&layout=top.

The first guide walks through the other settings in this panel.

Step 2: Install the Aitum Vertical plugin

Aitum Vertical is a free plugin by Aitum. It adds a separate vertical canvas to OBS, with its own scenes, sources, recording and stream outputs. It works on Windows, Mac and Linux.

1. Close OBS.
2. Download Aitum Vertical from its official page on the OBS forums or from aitum.tv, then run the installer.
3. Open OBS. You'll see new docks called Vertical (the vertical preview and its buttons), Vertical Scenes and Vertical Sources. If one is hidden, turn it on from the Docks menu.
4. In the Vertical dock, click the gear button (Vertical Settings). On the General page, check that Resolution is set to 1080x1920 (that's the default), then click OK.

Tip: Get the plugin from the forum page or aitum.tv, and keep it up to date. Older tutorials sometimes link to outdated copies.

Does OBS do this on its own now? Not quite. Since OBS Studio 31.1, OBS can run extra canvases under the hood, and Twitch's Enhanced Broadcasting can send one alongside your main stream. But OBS still has no built-in way to create or edit a second canvas. That's the part Aitum Vertical adds.

Step 3: Add the tall bracket to the vertical canvas

1. In the Vertical Scenes dock, pick the scene you want, or click + to add a vertical scene.
2. In the Vertical Sources dock, click + and add a Browser source. Use the + in Vertical Sources, not the normal Sources panel, or the bracket lands on your wide canvas instead.
3. Give it a name like "BracketTap tall" and click OK.
4. Paste your tall stream view link into the URL field.
5. Set Width to 1080 and Height to 1920.
6. If you want the sound effects on stream, tick Control audio via OBS. Then click OK.

The bracket now fills the Vertical preview. The tall layout is built for 1080 × 1920: text and the QR code come out the same size as on a 1080p wide stream, so you don't need to resize anything.

Step 4 (optional): Keep the wide bracket on your main canvas too

One room can drive both streams at once. Every stream view link points at the room by its code, and the layout is just a setting in the link. A tall link and a wide link for the same room show the same matchup and the same votes at the same moment.

To get your second link:

1. On the host screen, in the same stream settings, switch Layout to Wide · QR right or Wide · QR left.
2. Untick Sound effects on stream, so the sounds only come from one of your two links and don't play twice.
3. Tap Copy link again.
4. In OBS's normal Sources panel, add a Browser source with this link at 1920 × 1080, the same way as in the first guide.

You can also edit the link by hand. A Wide · QR right link has no layout in it at all, so just delete &layout=top (or &layout=bottom) from your tall link. For Wide · QR left, change it to &layout=left. For example:

• Tall, for the vertical canvas: https://brackettap.com/stream/ABC234?bg=transparent&layout=top
• Wide, for the main canvas: https://brackettap.com/stream/ABC234?bg=transparent&sound=0

Stream views never count as players, so two of them don't change any vote counts.

Tip: Want your vertical scene to switch when your main scene does? Right-click a scene in the Vertical Scenes dock, choose Linked Scenes, and pick the main scene that goes with it.

Step 5: Go live on TikTok, Shorts or Instagram

1. On the platform, get a server URL and a stream key for a live stream. Where you find these depends on the platform and changes from time to time, so check its help pages. TikTok only shows them to accounts with LIVE access.
2. In OBS, click the gear in the Vertical dock to open Vertical Settings, and go to the Streaming page.
3. Fill in a Name (like "TikTok"), the Server and the Key, and make sure Enabled is ticked. Going live on more than one vertical platform? Click Add and fill in another one.
4. Click OK, then start the vertical stream with the stream button in the Vertical dock. Or tick Start and stop streaming when main OBS starts and stops streaming on the Streaming page, and both streams start with OBS's normal Start Streaming button.
5. Run the game from the host screen as usual. Both streams update together.

Tip: TikTok gives you a new stream key for each stream, so paste the fresh key into Vertical Settings every time you go live there.

Tips for vertical brackets

• Put the bracket over your camera. Pick Transparent in BracketTap, add your camera to the vertical scene, then make sure the BracketTap source sits above the camera in Vertical Sources. Your camera shows through wherever the bracket doesn't cover it, and you don't need a chroma key filter.
• Keep the QR code big enough to scan. At 1080 × 1920, the QR code in a tall layout is a bit over a quarter of the screen width. Leave the source at full size, and if you need room for your face, put the camera behind the bracket rather than shrinking the bracket.
• Keep it clear of the platform's buttons. Comments and buttons usually sit over the bottom and right side of a vertical stream. Tall · QR top keeps the QR code and room code away from them.
• Remember most viewers are on that same phone. You can't scan a QR code on the screen you're holding. Say the room code out loud now and then, and tell people to go to brackettap.com/join and type it in. Where your platform allows it, put the code in your stream title or a pinned comment too. The QR code still works for anyone watching on a TV, a computer or a second device.
• Turn off Screen saver for streams. It's there for TVs left on for hours: about every 10 minutes it moves the QR panel to the other end of the screen. If your camera is placed around the bracket, untick Screen saver on the host screen before you copy your links.
• Dropped frames? Two streams take more work. Try a lower Video Bitrate on the Streaming page of Vertical Settings, or close any apps you don't need while you're live.

FAQ

Do I need two rooms for two streams?

No. Both links point at the same room, so wide and vertical viewers vote in the same bracket, and everyone sees the same reveal at the same time.

Can I stream only vertically, without the plugin?

Yes. If you only ever stream vertically, set OBS's own canvas to 1080 × 1920 under Settings → Video → Base (Canvas) Resolution, and add the tall link as a normal Browser source. The plugin is what lets you run wide and vertical at the same time.

Which tall layout should I pick?

Tall · QR top is the safe choice for TikTok, Shorts and Instagram, since their comments and buttons usually cover the bottom of the screen. Tall · QR bottom works well when nothing covers the bottom, like a recording you'll edit later.

Does OBS have vertical canvases built in now?

Partly. OBS Studio 31.1 and later can run extra canvases, and Twitch's Dual Format streams can send one through Enhanced Broadcasting (Twitch is still rolling this out). But you still need a plugin like Aitum Vertical to create the vertical canvas and put scenes on it.

Does the vertical stream view count as a player?

No. Like the wide one, it only watches the room. Only phones that join with the QR code or room code count as players.

Ready to go vertical? Create a bracket, or grab a ready-made one on Discover. New to BracketTap in OBS? Start with How to create a bracket and add it to your stream with OBS.

Using a different app? See our guides for Streamlabs Desktop, TikTok LIVE Studio and PRISM Live.