Short Dramas Reels Explained Editor Picks 2026

How a Kyiv Studio Bet on the Vertical Drama

In the beginning, Holywater was not a television company. The business was established in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020 by Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov, and its portfolio still looks more like a mobile entertainment lab than a streaming service. My Passion covers books, My Muse is for AI, and FreeBits rounds out the set alongside My Drama. That range is significant, because it reveals a company that regards video as one of several consumer products rather than short drama app its complete identity. Eventually, it placed its bet on the vertical drama, a format that began in China as duanju and is framed 9:16 for a phone held upright. The sector’s biggest names were backed by Chinese and Singaporean groups, so entering this market was a bold choice for a small Ukrainian company.

Spring 2024 and the Arrival of the My Drama App

The precise launch date of the My Drama app depends on which record you trust, but it launched in spring 2024. TechCrunch put the launch in April, Google Play lists March 13, 2024, and the App Store lists May 9, 2024. Based on the gap between those store dates, Android likely came first and the iPhone version arrived about two months later. From the start, the slate leaned hard on the genre’s favorite tropes. Initial titles such as The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss reveal most of what you need to know about the tone through their names alone. The collaborator it would soon be making them with, not the stories themselves, is what eventually made it stand out.

The Fox Deal, a $22M Round and a Webby

My Drama stopped being just a startup curiosity in October 2025. An equity stake in Holywater went to Fox Entertainment, and the agreement came with a commitment to make more than 200 vertical titles over two years. Horizon Capital led a $22M round for Holywater three months later, in January 2026. Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside are among the Fox-produced titles on the service. The company also holds a Webby Award for Best Streaming Service from 2025, a credential it displays on its App Store listing. Few rivals can claim what those milestones hand My Drama, namely a major American studio acting as both shareholder and producer.

My Drama at a Glance

The short version of the story sits in the table below, for readers who only have a minute. It gathers the ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that count most to a new viewer. The prices are those listed in the US App Store as of September 2026. Country, platform and promotion all affect them, so treat them as a guide rather than a firm quote. The install figure refers to Google Play, where the app displays 5M+ downloads. The legal entity you deal with depends on where you live, which turns out to be relevant if you ever need to contest a charge.

How Watching on My Drama Plays Out

The whole category is built on the same basic experience, and My Drama sticks to it. In this genre, episodes typically run a minute or two before a cliffhanger pushes you toward the next one, and they are vertical, framed for a phone held upright. With series often running anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes, one story can quietly swallow an evening in bite-sized pieces. Where this drama app really distinguishes itself is the range of screens it supports. Apart from iPhone, iPad and Android, the app is listed for Vision Pro and for Apple TV on tvOS 18 or later. That big-screen option is less common than you might expect: for comparison, ReelShort’s App Store listing shows no Apple TV version at all. A 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen television, but the option transforms a solo phone habit into something a couple can watch together.

Holywater’s own early productions and the growing Fox slate make up the library, which blends the two. Titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession show that the Fox releases stay close to the genre’s familiar formula. Scale is where the honest caveat comes in. On Google Play the app shows 5M+ installs, a fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each list. This gap puts My Drama in 2026 as a well-funded challenger rather than the category leader.

What My Drama Costs in 2026: Plans and Prices

Of the three ways Holywater sells access, the weekly pass carries the key figure. Around $19.99 a week is what “My Drama: Full Access” costs in the US App Store as of September 2026. The weekly passes from ReelShort, ShortMax, DramaWave and GoodShort are listed at about the same price in the same store, which puts My Drama on par with them. Coin packs, which are used to unlock individual episodes, run from roughly $4.99 to $24.99. With a separate Premium tier listed at about $4.99 to $9.99, lighter viewers get lower-cost entry points than the full pass. Prices differ by country, platform and promotion, so the figure on your own screen may differ. The weekly subscription renews automatically until you cancel it, like its rivals’ plans. Four renewals of a $19.99 weekly pass total roughly $80 a month, so do the math before you commit.

Terms to Read Before You Pay

The terms of use for My Drama include fine print that deserves more attention than most viewers give it. Because coin purchases are final, there is no easy refund if a series disappoints after you unlock it. After 12 months of inactivity, coins are also forfeited, so a balance left untouched for a year can simply vanish. Except where the law requires otherwise, purchases made on the web are labeled non-refundable. Viewers in the EU and UK get a 14-day right of withdrawal, in line with the consumer rules in those markets. The terms make it clear, and this matters most, that deleting the app does not cancel your subscription. On an iPhone you cancel under Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions, while Android users use the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. For store purchases, refunds are handled by Apple or Google, not by Holywater.

It is also worth knowing exactly who stands on the other side of the contract. If you are in the US, the contracting party is XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company; everyone else contracts with Holy Water Limited in Nicosia, Cyprus. A further warning applies to My Drama as much as to any vertical drama app. Sites advertising modded APKs, unlimited coins or free coin generators are unofficial and are not a safe way to watch anything. If the price feels too high, the proper move is to cancel the pass, not to hunt for a hack.

Verdict: The Challenger With Hollywood on Its Side

By install counts, My Drama is not close to being the largest vertical drama app. Rather, it offers an unusual combination: a Kyiv founding story, a Fox equity partner committed to more than 200 titles, fresh funding from January 2026 and a Webby on the shelf. Viewers get a practical advantage in Apple TV support, which ReelShort, for one, does not list. A weekly pass of roughly $19.99 that renews quietly in the background is the downside, the same one that dogs every rival. If you simply want the largest claimed library, ShortMax, with its 50,000+ dramas, is the more obvious pick. If you want Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a television, the My Drama app earns a place on your home screen. Whichever you choose, set a reminder on the day you subscribe and cancel through your store account instead of trusting the delete button.