CALIFORNIA: Twitter is progressing continuously with addition of new features like group messaging and video clips. These features will attract millions of new customers.
The video tools arrive for iOS and Android users only, allowing them to shoot 30-second clips and upload them directly to Twitter without the need for third-party apps or external links.
Twitter product director Jinen Kamdar said that the videos can be viewed and played directly within a user’s timeline.
“In just a few taps you can add a video to unfolding conversations, share your perspective of a live event, and show your everyday moments instantly, without ever having to leave the app,” he explained.
The videos will not play automatically, which is good news for those using Twitter in public places.
The native feature sits alongside Twitter-owned Vine, which enables six-second looping videos to be embedded into tweets.
Kamdar said that the video feature is rolling out on iOS devices first, followed by Android soon after, and should arrive within the next couple of weeks.
The private group messaging feature means that multiple users can start conversations on the site even if they do not follow one other.
Conversations on Twitter were private only if they were direct messages between individual users. Conversations involving more than two users generally required the exchange tweets to be publically visible.
Check out the video below to see the features in action.
witter has most likely rolled out the new features to keep up with the competition, such as Facebook and Instagram, which update services and tools on a regular basis.
Twitter obviously isn’t bitter about this. At all. Last week, the firm told high-profile users to ditch Instagram in favour of Twitter’s onboard photo service.
A report said that Twitter began asking these users to “post your photos directly on Twitter to make sure your fans always see them”.
This refers to the fact that Instagram photos, unlike those posted directly to Twitter, don’t show up in Timeline view. Instead, photos simply show as an Instagram.com link and push the user to the rival website for viewing.
This is because Instagram disabled support for displaying images in tweets two years ago, about the same time that Twitter introduced native photo-editing and filters.