HBO Max has launched a TikTok-style vertical video feed called HBO Max Shorts, pulling clips from shows and films already on the platform and presenting them in a scrollable format designed to help viewers find something to watch.

The feature is currently being tested with select iOS users in the United States, with plans to expand to more devices and markets, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Users tap a "Shorts" icon on the bottom navigation menu to browse trailers, clips, and bonus content from across the HBO Max catalogue.

There is no new programming here. The vertical videos are clips trimmed from existing library content and reformatted for a vertical, phone-first presentation. Think of it as a trailer reel that scrolls.

What makes the feature technically interesting is how those clips get made. HBO Max is using an in-house AI tool that applies machine learning and scene-level metadata to scan thousands of hours of programming and suggest compelling moments. Human editors remain involved in the process. Deepna Devkar, HBO Max's senior vice president of Machine Learning Engineering, oversees the technical side, while Liesel Kipp, executive vice president of Product Management at Warner Bros. Discovery, leads the product work.

The algorithm behind Shorts delivers content based on a user's watch history. If a clip catches someone's eye, they can jump straight to the full series or film, add it to their "My List," or simply keep scrolling. Sports clips will be added to the Shorts feed in the future, HBO Max said.

Alongside Shorts, the platform also announced a second AI-powered feature called "Ask HBO Max," a conversational search tool that lets users find content using natural-language queries. Type something like "a heist movie set in Europe" and the tool aims to surface relevant titles. That feature is also in a test phase.

The two features together signal where HBO Max's product team is concentrating its effort: discovery, the problem every streaming platform faces when its library runs into the tens of thousands of hours and viewers cannot find what they want. A scrollable feed of vertical clips is a format most phone users already know intimately from TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. HBO Max is betting that the same habit can be turned into a gateway for longer-form viewing.

For viewers, the practical effect is straightforward. If you are the kind of person who opens a streaming app and scrolls for twenty minutes without pressing play, Shorts is designed to short-circuit that by putting a curated clip in front of you — one the algorithm thinks you will like, drawn from a show or film already sitting in the library. Whether it works at scale will depend on how good the AI is at picking genuinely compelling scenes, and how willing viewers are to let a streaming app behave more like a social feed.