TikTok made a name for itself and grew in popularity very quickly by focusing on very short-form videos. Now it looks as though those videos could be about to triple in length.
As The Verge reports, the video-sharing social network is experimenting with videos that can be as long as three minutes. Currently, videos on the platform range in length from three to 60 seconds, so this is quite the leap. Confirmation of the extended length comes via social media consultant Matt Navarra who tweeted a photo of a TikTok notification.
The fact these longer videos are only accessible via early access suggests it’s just an experiment and TikTok may change its mind or adjust the length based on feedback and the content produced. Three minutes is by no means long compared to other videos such as YouTube, but has the potential to break what makes TikTok so popular: how instant and condensed the content is. However, doubling the length of tweets hasn’t made Twitter any less popular, has it?
Meanwhile, TikTok continues to face fresh competition with Snapchat being the latest to take it on with Spotlight. The future is also less than clear regarding whether it will continue to be available as a service in the US. Last we heard, parent company ByteDance was given another week to find a buyer.
