Twitter has revealed a new update that aims to make it easier for users to create, share and watch videos on its platform through what the social media network calls a “new viewing experience.”
“76 percent of Canadian Twitter users watch mobile video and that number continues to increase month after month,” says Rory Capern, managing director of Twitter Canada. “These new updates will help feed that growing appetite for Twitter video content and we’re exciting to give all users more options for both uploading and consuming video on our platform.”
Twitter plans to launch a new browsing user interface that it says will make it easier to discover videos and Vines within Timelines. Tapping a Tweet or Vine in the main Timeline now launches a new, full-screen video navigation interface.
The length of video able to be uploaded to Twitter has also been extended to 140 seconds. Furthermore, Vine, a service owned by Twitter that’s currently focused only on quick, six second videos, will launch a new “Watch more” button, allowing viewers to watch longer videos through the platform. This feature is currently open to a small group of creators on Vine.
Finally, a new iOS and Android app developed by Twitter called Engage and targeted at content creators, will allow users to “interact with their fans as well as grow and retain their audience.” Twitter’s release regarding the new app does not delve into specifics, but the app seems to take many of the statistics found in the platform’s dedicated analytics page, and present them in a more mobile friendly way. Engage highlights important Twitter interactions and includes mentions from users that are verified or followed by a lot of followers.
With the frequency of video uploads increasing by 50 percent since the start of 2016, Twitter’s shift towards a more video friendly timeline certainly makes sense, though it’s unclear if it will improve the platform’s stagnating user growth issues.
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