Fullscreen
Fullscreen, Inc. was an American digital media company and multi-channel network (MCN) founded in 2011, specializing in tools, services, and strategies to empower online video creators—particularly on YouTube—to grow audiences, monetize content, and collaborate with brands across social platforms.[1] Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Fullscreen represented thousands of channels and creators, amassing over 450 million subscribers at its peak and focusing on youth-oriented entertainment experiences in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.[2] The company was co-founded by George Strompolos and James Veraldi, who aimed to bridge the gap between emerging online talent and traditional media opportunities.[1] In September 2014, Otter Media—a joint venture between AT&T and The Chernin Group—acquired a majority stake in Fullscreen for an estimated $200–300 million, with Strompolos retaining a significant ownership interest and continuing as CEO.[3] This deal valued Fullscreen's network of over 35,000 channels and positioned it as a key player in the burgeoning MCN industry.[4] By January 2018, Otter Media completed its full acquisition of Fullscreen for $845 million, consolidating control and integrating it into a portfolio that included other digital properties like Ellation (owner of Crunchyroll).[5] Following AT&T's $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner in 2018, Otter Media—and by extension Fullscreen—became subsidiaries of the newly formed WarnerMedia (later Warner Bros. Discovery).[6] Fullscreen expanded into original programming, brand partnerships, and creator management, including a merger with Machinima, Inc. in February 2019 that ceased Machinima's operations and resulted in layoffs, but faced challenges from industry shifts toward direct platform deals and algorithm changes. In November 2020, WarnerMedia implemented widespread layoffs that eliminated most or all of Fullscreen's dedicated team, effectively dissolving its independent operations and folding remaining functions into WarnerMedia's advertising sales division.[7] The Creator Network ceased operations on October 31, 2021, after which Fullscreen was fully integrated into Ellation (now part of Warner Bros. Discovery) and listed as closed, marking the end of its era as a standalone entity in digital content creation.[1])Definition and Concepts
Core Definition
Fullscreen mode is a display state in computing and media applications where the content occupies the entire screen real estate, effectively hiding operating system elements such as taskbars, menus, and window borders to provide an unobstructed viewing experience.[8] This configuration maximizes the available space for the active content, enhancing immersion by eliminating visual distractions from the desktop environment.[9] A key characteristic of fullscreen mode is its temporary and toggleable nature, allowing users to enter and exit the state seamlessly without altering the underlying window management permanently.[10] It differs from simple window maximization, which enlarges a window to fill the screen but retains visible operating system chrome like title bars and borders.[11] Activation typically occurs through user-initiated triggers, including keyboard shortcuts such as F11 in web browsers, mouse clicks on dedicated buttons, or programmatic calls via application interfaces.[10] In terms of visual and functional outcomes, fullscreen mode removes extraneous interface elements to focus attention on the content, potentially adjusting the display resolution or aspect ratio to better suit the media or application for optimal presentation.[9] This can result in a more engaging experience, particularly for video playback or gaming, though it may temporarily suspend multitasking capabilities until the mode is deactivated.[8] Fullscreen functionality has roots in the transition from early graphical interfaces, where it began as a means to utilize limited screen space more efficiently.[12]Related Terms and Variations
Fullscreen, often stylized as full-screen or full screen, encompasses several synonymous and variant terms used in computing interfaces to describe modes that maximize content visibility by minimizing or eliminating surrounding user interface elements. Common synonyms include "full-screen mode," which is interchangeable in documentation for web browsers and applications, where it hides toolbars and other UI to dedicate the display to the content. Variants such as "immersive mode" refer to a similar experience on mobile platforms, emphasizing distraction-free viewing by concealing system overlays like notification bars. In video playback contexts, "theater mode" serves as a partial variant, expanding the player to occupy most of the screen while retaining some peripheral UI, such as comments or controls on platforms like YouTube, without entering true fullscreen. Another hybrid variant is "borderless windowed," which simulates fullscreen appearance by removing window borders but maintains windowed behavior for easier multitasking. Subtypes of fullscreen distinguish between hardware-exclusive and software-simulated approaches. True fullscreen, also known as exclusive fullscreen, grants an application direct control over the display hardware, often changing the desktop resolution to match the app's needs and blocking other windows for optimal performance in resource-intensive scenarios like gaming. In contrast, pseudo-fullscreen, frequently implemented as borderless windowed mode, achieves a similar visual effect through software by maximizing the window to cover the screen without altering resolution or claiming exclusive hardware access, allowing seamless alt-tabbing to other applications at the cost of potential minor performance overhead. As an opposing partial mode, picture-in-picture (PiP) enables a small, floating video window that overlays other content, prioritizing multitasking over immersive expansion and serving as a counterpoint to fullscreen by reducing rather than maximizing the active area. Contextual adaptations of fullscreen vary significantly between device types and input methods. On desktop systems, fullscreen typically hides the taskbar and borders while supporting multi-monitor setups, where the mode applies only to the primary display without disrupting secondary screens. Mobile devices, however, adapt fullscreen by hiding the status bar (showing battery, time, and notifications) and navigation bar to utilize the entire touchscreen, often employing immersive techniques that reveal these elements temporarily via edge swipes for user access to system controls. In touch-enabled devices, orientation-specific fullscreen commonly locks the display to landscape mode during activation to optimize for media consumption or gaming, preventing unintended rotations that could disrupt the experience on portrait-oriented hardware. The etymology of "fullscreen" traces back to early cinema and television standards, where "full screen" described the 4:3 aspect ratio that filled the entire frame without letterboxing or pillarboxing, originating from the square-ish proportions of silent film projectors and standard-definition broadcasts before widescreen formats emerged. A common misconception confuses fullscreen with display resolution settings, such as 4K (3840x2160 pixels), assuming the term implies maximum pixel density; in reality, fullscreen denotes the spatial occupancy of the screen by content regardless of resolution, allowing a 4K fullscreen mode to simply mean full-screen presentation at 4K without altering the fundamental UI-hiding function.History and Evolution
Early Implementations
The concept of fullscreen viewing drew early inspiration from non-digital media, particularly the cinematic innovations of the 1950s that emphasized immersive widescreen formats to captivate audiences. CinemaScope, introduced by 20th Century-Fox in 1953 with the premiere of The Robe, utilized anamorphic lenses to create a 2.55:1 aspect ratio, effectively doubling the width of traditional Academy format images for a more expansive, theater-filling experience.[13] This shift from the narrower 1.33:1 ratio encouraged fullscreen projection without black bars, influencing how visual media filled available space to enhance spectacle. Similarly, early television standards adopted the 4:3 (1.33:1) aspect ratio, mirroring the Academy film standard established in 1932 and solidified in U.S. households by the mid-1950s, where over half of homes had TVs by 1954, standardizing "fullscreen" broadcasts to match the square-like proportions of contemporary screens.[14] In computing, the origins of fullscreen functionality emerged in the 1970s and 1980s through graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that introduced window management, allowing users to expand interfaces to occupy the entire display. The Xerox Alto, operational from March 1973 at Xerox PARC, featured the first working WIMP (windows, icons, menus, pointer) GUI with a stacking window manager that supported overlapping and resizable windows on its bitmapped 1024x879 display, laying the groundwork for basic maximization to utilize the full screen. This evolved into more accessible systems in the 1980s, such as the Apple Macintosh released in 1984, which included a zoom feature in its window controls to enlarge applications to better fit or fill the 512x342 monochrome screen, promoting a seamless, distraction-free view. Complementing these graphical advances, DOS-based command-line interfaces in the 1980s operated in full-screen text modes by default, rendering 80x25 character grids across the entire monitor without window borders, as seen in MS-DOS environments that dominated IBM PC compatibles.[15] By the 1990s, fullscreen adoption accelerated in multimedia software, enabling immersive experiences amid rising hardware capabilities. Microsoft's Windows 3.1, released in April 1992, integrated Media Player as a core component for playing MIDI audio and AVI video files.[16] This was particularly evident in CD-ROM games, where titles like The 7th Guest (1993) leveraged full-motion video at 640x320 resolution in fullscreen mode to deliver cinematic immersion, filling the screen with pre-rendered sequences for puzzle-solving and horror elements without UI interruptions. Such implementations were constrained by hardware limitations, including VGA standards capped at 640x480 resolution with 16 colors in standard modes and only 256 KB of video RAM, which restricted visual fidelity and prevented higher-detail fullscreen rendering. Additionally, the absence of native multi-monitor support in operating systems until Windows 98 in 1998 meant fullscreen experiences were confined to single displays, limiting extended workspaces.[17][18]Modern Developments
The 2000s marked a significant surge in fullscreen technology, fueled by the widespread adoption of broadband internet and the proliferation of high-definition (HD) content. Online video platforms, such as YouTube launched in 2005, integrated fullscreen toggles to accommodate growing demand for immersive streaming experiences as HD videos became feasible over faster connections.[19] In parallel, the gaming industry advanced through APIs like DirectX and OpenGL, which supported exclusive fullscreen modes allowing applications to monopolize display resources for optimal performance and immersion, a practice that became standard for PC titles throughout the decade.[20] The 2010s brought standardization to fullscreen implementations, addressing inconsistencies across browsers and devices. In 2011, the W3C proposed the Fullscreen API, with early adoption through Mozilla's Gecko engine implementation and a specification draft by Anne van Kesteren that introduced concepts like the fullscreen element stack for nested support; WebKit followed in 2012 with its prefixed version.[21] Mobile platforms evolved concurrently, with iOS and Android introducing enhanced fullscreen capabilities post-2012, including options to hide navigation bars for distraction-free viewing in videos and apps.[22] The HTML5 specification's finalization as a Candidate Recommendation in 2014 solidified cross-browser compatibility, enabling reliable fullscreen functionality without vendor-specific prefixes.[23] By the 2020s, fullscreen technology has integrated with emerging hardware and intelligent systems for deeper immersion. Virtual and augmented reality devices, exemplified by the Oculus Rift's 2016 consumer launch, deliver persistent fullscreen-like environments that envelop users in virtual spaces.[24] Foldable smartphones have introduced adaptive fullscreen modes, dynamically adjusting layouts to utilize unfolded screens for expansive content display while maintaining usability in compact forms.[25] These innovations reflect responses to user demands for seamless immersion alongside multitasking, mitigating earlier limitations like restricted alt-tabbing in exclusive modes.[20]Technical Implementation
Operating System Level
At the operating system level, fullscreen functionality is managed through kernel and windowing system APIs that enable exclusive access to display hardware, often involving mode switching to match the screen's native resolution. In Windows, the Win32 API provides core mechanisms such as the ChangeDisplaySettings function, which allows applications to alter display settings by specifying a DEVMODE structure to set the resolution, color depth, and refresh rate for exclusive fullscreen access.[26] This process hands control of the GPU directly to the application in fullscreen exclusive (FSE) mode, capturing input devices to route events solely to the active window and restricting task switching like Alt-Tab unless explicitly permitted by the application.[20] On macOS, fullscreen is facilitated through the AppKit framework's NSWindow class, which supports a full-screen style mask that hides the title bar and toolbar while integrating with Core Animation layers for efficient rendering across the entire screen.[27] The system handles input by directing events to the fullscreen window, though macOS's Mission Control allows users to switch spaces or apps via gestures, preventing complete input lock without additional app-level overrides.[28] In Linux, fullscreen operations rely on the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) and Kernel Mode Setting (KMS) subsystems, which configure display pipelines at the kernel level to set modes without userspace intervention.[29] Under the X11 windowing system, applications request fullscreen via the _NET_WM_STATE_FULLSCREEN atom, while Wayland compositors manage it directly by assigning surfaces to outputs and using DRM/KMS for hardware-accelerated mode changes, sending input events exclusively to the client surface.[30] This contrasts with X11's more indirect input routing through the server, as Wayland eliminates the central input proxy for lower latency in fullscreen scenarios.[31] Multi-monitor setups introduce complexities in resolution and virtual desktop handling, where fullscreen typically applies to a single output to avoid disrupting other displays. Windows supports dynamic resolution changes per monitor via EnumDisplaySettings and ChangeDisplaySettingsEx, allowing fullscreen on one screen while maintaining independent modes on others, though extending across all requires application-specific coordination.[32] macOS treats each monitor as a separate space, enabling fullscreen on one while preserving the desktop on others, with Core Animation ensuring smooth transitions without global resolution shifts.[28] Linux's DRM/KMS framework sets modes per connector (e.g., HDMI or DisplayPort), supporting virtual desktop integration; X11 allows spanning but often composes over windows, whereas Wayland compositors like Mutter or KWin enforce per-output fullscreen to integrate with multi-monitor workflows without tearing.[29] Security considerations at the OS level focus on permissions for display control and preventing abuse, such as malicious applications trapping users in fullscreen by restricting exit paths. Windows mitigates this through sandboxing in environments like Microsoft Defender Application Guard, which isolates processes and enforces task manager access to terminate rogue fullscreen sessions, while requiring elevated privileges for persistent display changes. macOS employs System Integrity Protection (SIP) and app sandboxing to limit unauthorized mode switches, ensuring users can always invoke Force Quit or switch via Command-Tab despite fullscreen input capture.[33][34] In Linux, the DRM subsystem requires root or capability checks for mode setting via ioctl calls, and compositors like those in GNOME or KDE prevent indefinite locks by maintaining session-wide input oversight, with tools like xkill or killall providing recovery.[29] Power management implications arise during fullscreen sessions, as OSes adjust sleep behaviors to sustain active rendering. Windows uses power requests via the PowerCreateRequest API in FSE mode to inhibit sleep and screen dimming, signaling to the kernel that the display remains in use.[35] macOS allows applications to assert prevention of system sleep through IOKit power assertions, automatically disabling idle timers in fullscreen to avoid interruptions during video or graphics tasks.[36] Linux handles this via systemd-logind inhibitors or D-Bus calls from compositors, where fullscreen surfaces trigger suspend blocks to maintain DRM/KMS output, configurable through /etc/systemd/logind.conf for global policies.[37]Application and Software Level
In standalone applications and software frameworks, fullscreen implementation often relies on cross-platform libraries that abstract underlying operating system calls. For instance, the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL2) provides the SDL_SetWindowFullscreen function, which toggles a window's fullscreen state by specifying flags such as SDL_WINDOW_FULLSCREEN for true fullscreen mode or SDL_WINDOW_FULLSCREEN_DESKTOP for borderless windowed fullscreen, enabling consistent behavior across platforms like Windows, Linux, and macOS. Similarly, the Qt framework uses the QWidget::showFullScreen() method to display a widget in fullscreen without decorations, supporting toggles via window state changes. Event handling for exits, such as pressing the Escape key, is managed through SDL's event polling system, which captures SDL_KEYDOWN events for Qt::Key_Escape, allowing developers to implement custom exit logic by reimplementing keyPressEvent in a QWidget subclass. Developers can customize fullscreen transitions to minimize visual disruptions, such as using Qt's built-in animations for smooth scaling or SDL's window resizing callbacks to handle gradual mode changes, contrasting with abrupt switches that may cause flickering if not synchronized with rendering loops. In productivity applications like integrated development environments (IDEs), overlays—such as debug consoles or tool panels—can persist over fullscreen content by layering widgets on top of the main view, as seen in frameworks like Qt where child widgets remain visible unless explicitly hidden during state transitions. Performance in fullscreen applications benefits from GPU acceleration, where rendering pipelines leverage hardware compositing to offload drawing tasks from the CPU, as outlined in DirectX fullscreen optimizations that enable exclusive GPU access for smoother frame rates without desktop interference. Memory management during mode switches requires careful handling to avoid leaks, particularly when recreating graphics contexts; modern APIs like Direct3D 12 recommend classifying resources by usage (e.g., frequent updates vs. static) to stream allocations efficiently, preventing excessive VRAM consumption as display resolutions change. These considerations ensure stable operation, building on OS-level permissions for exclusive display access. Beyond media-focused tools, fullscreen modes enhance usability in non-media applications. In photo editors like Adobe Photoshop, the Full Screen Mode hides toolbars and panels to maximize canvas visibility, activated via View > Screen Mode > Full Screen, providing an immersive editing environment. E-readers such as Calibre's ebook viewer support a distraction-free fullscreen option via the --full-screen command-line flag or in-app toggle, which conceals UI controls to focus on text rendering, ideal for prolonged reading sessions.Usage in Media and Applications
Video and Streaming
Fullscreen mode enhances video playback by scaling the video to fit the screen while preserving the original aspect ratio, which may include black bars to avoid distortion. This adjustment is particularly important for diverse content formats, such as 16:9 widescreen or 9:16 vertical videos, allowing seamless scaling during fullscreen activation. Subtitle positioning also adapts dynamically in many players, relocating captions to the bottom of the screen or adjusting opacity to avoid obscuring key visual elements, thereby maintaining narrative clarity. Major streaming platforms have integrated fullscreen features tailored to their services. YouTube introduced its theater mode in 2008, expanding the video player to a widescreen format for an immersive experience while retaining access to comments and controls, distinct from true browser fullscreen which hides all interface elements.[38] Netflix, during the 2010s, implemented UI fade-out in fullscreen playback, where on-screen controls and progress bars gradually disappear after a few seconds of inactivity to minimize distractions and promote cinematic immersion. Twitch, launching in 2011, adapted fullscreen for live streaming by enabling full-video expansion alongside persistent chat overlays, evolving with theater mode additions in 2014 to balance viewer engagement without overwhelming the stream.[39] Technical advancements post-2015 have elevated fullscreen capabilities, notably with support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) and resolutions up to 4K or 8K, delivering enhanced color depth, contrast, and detail on compatible displays during fullscreen viewing. Netflix pioneered HDR streaming in 2016 with titles like Marco Polo.[40] Multi-audio track handling further refines the experience, allowing switching between language options or audio descriptions. These features leverage adaptive bitrate streaming to maintain performance across devices.[41] User behaviors reflect fullscreen's prevalence in mobile short-form content, where vertical orientation dominates. On platforms like TikTok, launched in 2016, users commonly engage vertical fullscreen mode for immersive scrolling through clips, as the app's 9:16 aspect ratio naturally fills phone screens, fostering prolonged sessions without manual adjustments. This approach contrasts with traditional horizontal video but aligns with on-the-go consumption habits.[42]Gaming and Interactive Media
In video games, exclusive fullscreen mode optimizes performance by granting direct hardware access to the graphics card, bypassing the operating system's desktop compositor and thereby reducing input latency compared to windowed modes. This approach minimizes delays in rendering and input processing, which is crucial for fast-paced titles where even milliseconds matter. For instance, tests show exclusive fullscreen achieving input latencies around 40ms, significantly lower than the 65ms often seen in borderless alternatives.[43] Borderless windowed mode, which emerged as a popular option in the 2010s, simulates fullscreen visually while running as a maximized window, facilitating quick alt-tabbing to other applications like chat or monitoring tools without performance penalties from mode switches.[44] Game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine incorporate built-in toggles for these modes, enabling developers to implement seamless transitions during runtime since the early 2010s. In Unity, the Screen.fullScreen property allows scripts to enable or disable fullscreen dynamically, supporting both exclusive and borderless variants for cross-platform compatibility. Similarly, Unreal Engine's Game User Settings system provides blueprint nodes to set fullscreen modes—such as Fullscreen, WindowedFullscreen, or Windowed—ensuring packaged games launch in the desired configuration for optimal immersion.[45] For virtual reality applications, SteamVR, launched in 2015, treats fullscreen as a total environment takeover, enveloping users in 360-degree, room-scale experiences that lock out external distractions for heightened presence.[46] Fullscreen enhances input immersion through features like cursor confinement, which restricts the mouse to the game window in Windows environments, preventing escapes to secondary monitors and maintaining focus during play. This is particularly vital in first-person shooters, where relative mouse movement drives camera control without absolute positioning interruptions. Controller mapping also benefits, as fullscreen prioritizes direct input polling for responsive joystick and button handling. Technologies like NVIDIA G-Sync, debuted in 2013, further elevate immersion by adaptively syncing the display's refresh rate to the GPU's output in exclusive fullscreen, delivering tear-free visuals and reduced stutter even at variable frame rates.[47][48] In esports and streaming contexts, exclusive fullscreen remains a staple for competitive players seeking peak responsiveness, though borderless modes are favored by some for multitasking during tournaments. Streamers leverage overlays via tools like OBS Studio to layer spectator elements—such as chat boxes or score displays—over fullscreen captures, ensuring viewers receive enhanced broadcasts without compromising the player's in-game view.[49][50]Web Technologies and Standards
Fullscreen API
The Fullscreen API is a web standard that allows web pages to present a specific HTML element and its descendants in fullscreen mode, thereby hiding the browser's user interface and other applications to provide an immersive viewing experience. Originally introduced as a W3C Working Draft in 2012, it has evolved into a living standard maintained by the WHATWG, with the current specification dated August 12, 2025.[51][52] The core method,Element.requestFullscreen(), enables an element to enter fullscreen mode and returns a Promise that resolves upon success or rejects on failure.[53]
This API includes event listeners to monitor state changes, such as fullscreenchange, which fires on the Element or Document when the fullscreen state toggles, and fullscreenerror, which indicates failures like permission denials.[54][55] Developers can also query the current state via properties like Document.fullscreenElement, which returns the active fullscreen element (or null if none), and Document.fullscreenEnabled, which checks if fullscreen is permissible. For exiting fullscreen, Document.exitFullscreen() provides a corresponding Promise-based method.[56]
The requestFullscreen() method accepts an optional FullscreenOptions dictionary, where the navigationUI property controls whether the browser's navigation controls are shown ("show"), hidden ("hide"), or handled automatically ("auto" by default).[53] To support legacy browsers, vendor-prefixed variants exist, such as webkitRequestFullscreen for older Safari versions and mozRequestFullScreen for pre-2015 Firefox implementations, though unprefixed usage is recommended in modern environments.
Security is a foundational aspect of the API, requiring a user gesture—such as a click or key press—to initiate fullscreen to mitigate abuse like unauthorized immersive content.[57] This is enforced through the Permissions Policy feature "fullscreen," which defaults to allowing the document itself but can be restricted via HTTP headers or the allowfullscreen attribute on iframes.[58] The API integrates with the Pointer Lock API, allowing games and interactive applications to capture mouse input seamlessly in fullscreen without browser interference, provided the security constraints are met.[59]
For environments lacking native support, polyfills and fallbacks enable graceful degradation; libraries like screenfull.js detect browser capabilities, apply prefixes dynamically, and provide a unified interface, ensuring compatibility up to 2025 standards across major browsers.[60]