Twitter releases immersive TikTok-style videos

Twitter starts with immersive videos like TikTok, only on iOS at first. The platform is also changing the way videos are offered.

Videos on Twitter will soon be more similar to those seen on TikTok. The company has indeed announced that it is moving to an “immersive”full-screen video player so users can watch clips. The platform also borrows the now very familiar ‘scroll up’ gesture for infinite scrolling of videos offered by the platform.

Twitter releases immersive TikTok-style videos

The update will also make Twitter video playback much closer to what you might see on TikTok or Instagram Reels, at least in terms of user interface. At the time of this writing, these changes only affect the Twitter app for iOS, but the company has already said that a similar update will be coming to Android in “the coming weeks.”

iOS only, natively

While Twitter has long been emphasizing video, and especially live streaming, across various areas of its app, this change is one of the most aggressive in the video promotion company for its users. This new feature may also be controversial as some users may find these new full screen videos disturbing. Twitter explains that users can easily jump back to the original post using the back arrow in the top left corner of a full-screen video.

The platform is also changing the way videos are offered.

In addition, Twitter is currently also testing another modification to push more users towards its platform’s video content. The company is indeed experimenting with a new recommendation section on the Review page on Twitter. These offers will be “available to users in select countries who use Twitter in English on iOS and Android.”

Will this allow the platform to better highlight videos as they see fit? Could the company consider regaining market share over the short video giants? Future will tell.