Elon Musk Reveals Twitter May Receive Short Video Feature Similar to Instagram and TikTok

Elon Musk envisions X (formerly known as Twitter) as a comprehensive app capable of various functions, including shopping and payments. Recent developments suggest that the platform is taking its first steps towards this goal. Over the past few weeks, users have noticed significant improvements in the video viewing experience. More video tweets are being recommended, and swiping up on a video now leads to another related video for users to watch. This resembles the infinite scrolling interface popularized by TikTok and adopted by Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. The question remains whether X will also follow this trend and introduce a similar short video interface on its platform.

Musk has shed some light on X’s direction for its video interface. Yesterday, he tweeted: “A remarkable video from X is getting good. Just swipe up to see the next video.” And later he added, “When it’s excellent, it will be integrated into the main interface”.

Will X get a short video interface?

While these Tweets don’t reveal much, there’s a lot to read between the lines. While testing X’s video interface, we found that swiping up to go to another video actually works. Right now, it’s probably being used by the same algorithm that recommends tweets for your homepage, because the videos we saw were pretty similar.

We were unable to confirm the video length for this interface. We saw a maximum video length of just under 3 minutes, but no claim can be made whether this interface supports longer videos or not. In particular, X previously announced that verified users can upload videos of up to 2 hours.

Musk also mentioned that as the user interface is further improved, it will be integrated into the main user interface. Its wording is interesting because it can mean a special widget like Instagram or YouTube where users can see a list of recommended videos and jump to a short video interface, or it can mean a tab dedicated to videos. But we’ll have to wait to find out how exactly X integrates videos into the platform. For now, some improvements are needed. For example, if you want to read or write a comment, you’ll be pushed out of the immersive view and sent to the tweet, where you can reply or read messages normally. This spoils the experience somewhat.

In addition to the video user interface, X is also designing other video features. Recently, Musk tested the X’s improved streaming capabilities. The company’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, has also confirmed that a video calling feature will be added to the platform soon.