Safe area: TikTok vs Reels vs Shorts

One 9:16 file can go to TikTok, Reels, and Shorts. Three chromes will sit on it. Safe area is the hole they leave, not a template you copy once. Keep captions out of the bottom ~200px on a 1080×1920 export, and off YouTube Shorts’ AI overlay. That overlay is on the picture as of 27 May 2026. Recheck before you publish. Chrome moves.

Three chromes, one file

Vertical feeds share a ratio and do not share a UI.

TikTok. Username and follow, caption field (which grows with your own description), right-rail buttons, often a shop or search chip. TikTok’s in-feed ad documentation has long said the usable frame contracts as caption text grows — your post caption, not the burned transcript. A long description steals the hole your type needed. Keep the burned block higher than a one-line description would, not flush with the last pixel of a mock.

Instagram Reels. Similar bottom band and right rail, different proportions, a CTA on paid cuts, audio attribution that is not TikTok’s. A karaoke line that cleared TikTok’s username can sit under Reels’ CTA. Paid Reels are a different chrome than organic Reels. Check both if you ship both.

YouTube Shorts. Bottom chrome plus, for photoreal / meaningfully AI-altered content, a label on the video. On 27 May 2026 the YouTube Blog (Improving AI labels for viewers and creators) moved that disclosure to a more prominent position: Shorts overlay on the picture; long-form below the player, above the description. Auto-detection applies if the creator does not disclose and systems see significant photoreal AI use. Labels alone do not impact recommendations or monetization eligibility. They do occupy pixels. Ars Technica’s same-day write-up placed the Shorts badge as a small overlay at the bottom of the video. Treat the lower band as taken twice: UI and label.

The ~200px keep-out on a 1080×1920 frame is a working default for the bottom furniture, not a contract. OS version, language pack, shop tabs, and that Shorts badge all move the line. A percentage from last year’s template is a snapshot. The glossary already says this: the only reliable check is against the current interface.

Top chrome exists on all three: status, search, sometimes a banner. Do not “fix” a bottom collision by slamming a title into the status bar.

Where the words go

Captions, lower thirds, legal rows, and hook overlays all want the same hole. Count them as one budget.

Speech captions: two lines, mid-lower frame, above the keep-out. Sentence case. Outline or backdrop.
Name super: not in the keep-out. Brief hold, higher, then gone so speech can use the band.
Legal / paid partnership / Article 50 mark: authored overlay. On paid Reels it competes with the CTA. Sequence or stack above the chrome, not in it.
Word-highlight: Snap and DYNAMIC pop scale the live token. Scale plus a low baseline hits mouths and buttons. Park karaoke higher than a static block, or shorten the cue.

A file that is “safe on TikTok” is not done. Export once, then preview in each app’s draft player, sound off. You are looking for covered type, not for vibes.

Generated photoreal Shorts need the extra pass. If YouTube will overlay “AI,” your caption cannot live in that badge. Beauty filters and obvious animation are outside the photoreal rule per that Blog post; a talking generated person is not. When in doubt, leave the overlay zone empty.

Do not trust an editor overlay that draws a generic rectangle. Useful as a fail-fast. Not TikTok’s current ads template, not Meta’s, not YouTube’s. Official templates live on the platform. Your job is to keep essential type out of the extreme bottom and the button rail, then verify.

One export, three checks

Practical sequence:

Frame 9:16 at 1080×1920. Caption after crop.
Keep essential type out of the bottom ~200px and off the right-rail buttons.
Keep a second keep-out in mind for Shorts: the AI overlay zone on photoreal generated cuts.
Burn. BASIC 1× for ads; DYNAMIC 2× only if the hook is a spoken phrase you can still read in the hole that remains.
Open TikTok draft, Reels draft, Shorts draft. Mute. Phone.
If type dies on one surface, move it for all three or ship two files. A “TikTok-safe” burn that fails Shorts is not one file.

Burned-in captions will not restack when the UI changes next quarter. If chrome grows, you recaption or you live with a miss. That is an argument for leaving more hole than the minimum, not for attaching a sidecar the feed will not play.

Language and OS are why two designers disagree about a “200px rule.” A German username row is wider. A shop tab is extra. An iOS home indicator is not Android’s. The number is a starting keep-out. The check is the app.

The AI caption generator and add captions to a video will put type where the preset says. 165 codes, 21 BASIC, 9 DYNAMIC. They do not know which of the three chromes you will upload into. You do.

Recheck; chrome moves

Safe area is not a brand asset you lock in Figma for a year. It is a property of this week’s TikTok, this ad account’s Reels CTA, this Shorts label policy.

When a campaign reuses last quarter’s captioned masters, spot-check one file per surface before you scale. If the username now sits higher, every file is wrong. Recaptioning thirty clips is cheaper than running thirty ads whose offer lives under a button.

YouTube’s May 2026 overlay is the current reminder that furniture gets added. It did not come with a caption API. It came with a badge on the picture. Type that ignored it is type the viewer cannot see. The Blog is explicit about placement. Your layout has to be.

Three chromes. One ratio. Keep the words in the hole. Bottom ~200px as a default keep-out, plus the Shorts overlay zone when the label applies. Then look at the phone, in each app, on mute.

Place the next 9:16 burn in Versely.

FAQ

Is 200px a TikTok spec?

No. It is a working keep-out on a 1080×1920 export so type clears typical bottom chrome. Shop tabs, long descriptions, paid CTAs, and Shorts’ AI overlay all change the hole. Verify in the app.

Do I need three captioned files?

Not if the type clears all three chromes, including the Shorts overlay when that label applies. If paid Reels or labelled Shorts kill a line the organic TikTok could keep, ship a second burn rather than a covered offer.

Where did the Shorts overlay come from?

YouTube Blog, 27 May 2026: photoreal / meaningfully AI-altered content gets a Shorts overlay on the video; long-form sits below the player. Labels alone do not affect recommendations or monetization. They do cover captions.