Twitter is starting with immersive videos like TikTok, on iOS only, at first. The platform is also changing the way it suggests videos.
The videos on Twitter will soon look more like the ones you can see on TikTok. The company has indeed announced that it is moving to a “immersive” full-screen video player for users to watch clips. The platform also borrows the now very familiar “swipe up” gesture to endlessly scroll through the videos offered by the platform.
Twitter gets into immersive TikTok-style videos
The update will also come to make playing videos on Twitter much closer to what you can see on TikTok or in the Instagram Reels, at least in terms of user interface. As of this writing, these changes are limited to the Twitter iOS app alone, but the company has already said a similar update will be coming to Twitter. Android in the next weeks”.
on iOS only, initially
Although Twitter has long emphasized video, and especially live streams, in different areas of its app, this change is one of the company’s most aggressive in promoting videos to its users. This new feature could also be controversial, as some users may find these new full-screen videos disturbing. Twitter clarifies that users can, however, easily return to the original tweet via the back arrow in the upper left corner of a full-screen video.
The platform is also changing the way it suggests videos
In addition, Twitter is also currently testing another modification to push more users towards the video content of its platform. The company is indeed experimenting with a new section for recommendations in the Explore page of Twitter. These suggestions will be “available to users in selected countries who use Twitter in English on iOS and Android.”
Will this allow the platform to better highlight the videos as it wishes? Could it consider recovering market share against the giants of short videos? The future will tell.