TWITTER HAS INTRODUCED both group messaging and the ability to upload 30-second videos as it looks for ways to increase its user base.
The first group messaging is effectively similar to every instant messaging app you’ve used before but in 140 characters. Up to 20 people can be included in a message, and since they don’t all have to be following each other for it to work, gives you more leeway for messaging.
Twitter Video allows you to either record or upload videos from your camera roll and post them onto your timeline. The setting has similar editing features to Vine, allowing you to combine smaller video clips together to make one larger one, and is available on iPhone for now (an Android update will be arriving soon).
Both are small inclusions in the greater scheme of things but the latter is the bigger of the two.
Following the money
The videos in question are separate to Twitter’s current service, Vine, which allows you to upload six second video which loop. Also, Vine experimented with an instant messaging service similar to what Twitter introduced with little to no success.
Although the 30 second limit is less than what people might have expected. Still, that gives those who were put off by Vine more leeway when loading up clips, and makes it more accessible. On top of that, the video sharing feature is built into Twitter itself (instead of Vine which is a separate app) so the uptake will be a little higher.
Twitter’s reasons for pushing video is the same reason as Facebook and any other service: money. There’s significant revenue to be generated through video ads, and if there’s any momentum behind them, then it will help pave the way for this.
This is something Twitter has been working on for a while in the US, teaming up with official partners like the NBA and showing clips from select games. If anything, the extra additions will keep those shareholders somewhat happy before it holds its latest earnings call next week.
Although its success depends on the type of people who upload videos and how valuable users find it. The fact that it’s built into Twitter itself will certainly help matters, but it could be similar to Facebook Video in that it will need a cause or trend – in Facebook’s case, it was the Ice Bucket Challenge – to push it forward.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say