Twitter announced two new updates that will integrate Video Discovery with a new video carousel and improve the user experience when watching full-screen videos.
Users immediately noticed that it resembled the TikTok way of discovering and watching videos. These Twitter updates have received both positive and skeptical reactions from users.
Twitter Explore
Both updates will be available in the Twitter Explore feature, and these features are now available on Apple’s iOS. Explore is a Twitter feed that displays a curated stream of tweets based on a user’s interests.
It is accessible via a magnifying glass icon on the Twitter app and mobile site, where tabs reveal categories of trending topics such as For you, Trending, and News.
New Video Carousel
A new video carousel will be added to Twitter soon, allowing users to choose popular videos to watch, including movie teasers.
Twitter announced in a tweet:
“Now on iOS, videos on your timeline will open in our full-screen immersive video player, where you can swipe up to keep discovering more content.”
Twitter described how the new feature will make it easy to keep discovering more videos.
“Some of you on iOS and Android will also see recommended content in a new video carousel on the Explore “For You” page.
Want to go back to scrolling? Tap the back arrow in the top left corner to exit the player to go right back to where you left off.”
Immersive Video Player
Twitter’s video playback has been updated as a second update. Now while using the app, one only needs to tap a video to watch it in full-screen mode. Additionally, the update includes a feature that makes it simpler to keep watching new videos. According to the announcement on the official Twitter blog:
“Once the video has been launched in full-screen mode, we’ve made video discovery easier as well.
Just scroll up to start browsing more engaging video content.
If you want to exit the viewer and go back to the original Tweet, click the back arrow in the top left corner.”
User Response to Twitter’s Announcement
Twitter users immediately made comparisons between the new video feed and TikTok. According to anecdotal evidence, users’ reactions to the news were split equally between those who liked being able to spend time watching videos and those who didn’t like it because it felt like Twitter was changing to become Twitter.
Also read: Powerful Twitter Marketing Tips To Grow E-Commerce Business
Videos on Twitter
Videos have ever been an element of the Twitter experience. But what Twitter lacks in finding and enjoying videos is making search videos secondary to the textual experience of reading tweets.
Since videos were readily available but challenging to find as a separate form of content medium, other than by misfortune coming across the interesting ones, the lack of video discovery seemed to be a mistake. It seems inevitable that there will be comparisons to TikTok, but it’s also somewhat inevitable that videos will be easier to find and watch on Twitter.