Twitter has a bunch of new video features to fend of the Facebook Live attack (TWTR)
REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Twitter is ramping up its video efforts.
The company is rolling out Watch Mode, a video-only section of its app, which users will be able to launch when they click on a video in their timelines, according to Recode. Twitter will be able to recommend other videos within Watch Mode.
Twitter is also making changes to video app Vine, which it acquired in 2012. Vine users will now be able to attach 140-second videos to their posts, with the original six-second video acting as a "trailer," Vine announced in a Medium post. Previously, users could only record and post six seconds of video on Vine.
Vine stars will now be able to make money off the app: users can take advantage of Twitter Amplify, the company's video ad service, to run ads before Vine videos, according to Recode.
Twitter's latest efforts show that the company has not only noticed the huge shift toward video, but realizes Twitter is not exactly the first app people think of for creating and sharing video. And this isn't the first time Twitter has expanded its video capabilities: The company bought live-streaming service Periscope in 2015, reportedly for somewhere between $75 and $100 million.
But now, it's up against stiff competition from Facebook and Snapchat.
Facebook has recently ramped up its video efforts, revamping its own broadcast product, Live, in April and adding a hub to find other live streams. In January, Facebook announced that users were watching 100 million hours of video each day, and Facebook exec Nicola Mendelsohn recently said that the "year-on-year decline of text" means Facebook could be shifting to an all-video newsfeed.
Twitter also has to watch out for Snapchat, which now has more daily active users than Twitter at 150 million. Snapchat just redesigned its Discover section to be more "visually rich" like Instagram's feed, offering its publishers the option to display their content in larger tiles and showing ads that autoplay in between friends' stories.
As Twitter lags behind on video, there's no telling if this latest push can help it catch up to apps who are already doing it well. But as the company faces inner turmoil, is losing out on advertisers and struggles to attract new users, everything helps.
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