Spotlight Stories on YouTube let you see beyond the frame

YouTube is letting you go beyond the five-inch phone screen frame with its new Santa-themed short film, allowing users to use their device to look at any particular part of the video as if they were watching it in a real-life theatre.

Unlike usual videos, this film called Special Delivery from the Academy Award-winning studio, Aardman Animations, is a 360-degree animation video.

Dubbed "Spotlight Stories," the new feature will be viewable on the YouTube app of an array of Android-powered smartphones.

Made by the creators of Wallace and Gromit, the animated short centres on a building custodian trying to find a mysterious stranger who remains just out of sight but leaves behind a trail of gifts.

Designed by Google as a new form of storytelling, the immersive films allow users to drill down into sub-stories within their plot by moving their phone towards what they want to see.

"The sensors on your phone allow the story to be interactive, so when you move your phone to various scenes, you unlock mini-stories within the story," technical project lead Rachid El Guerrab said in a blog post.

"Special Delivery" features 10 subplots and three potential endings.

Google Spotlight Stories which also work with Google Cardboard will be expanded to more Android devices as well as a YouTube application for mobile devices powered by Apple software next year, said El Guerrab.