We’re all used to quickly scrolling through tweets and consuming the text, images, and GIFs they contain. But for YouTube videos you have to click the link and go watch them on YouTube. Not for much longer, though.
As The Verge reports, Twitter is currently running a test that sees YouTube videos play directly in the tweet containing them. Twitter confirmed the test was happening via its Twitter Support account, with the test being limited to iOS for now. It was also confirmed to The Verge that the test will only run for four weeks and is limited to “a very small group of users” spread across, Canada, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and the US.
Being able to watch YouTube videos from within a tweet is especially convenient on smartphones where you don’t want to have to load another app. And the experience shouldn’t be compromised in any way as you can still opt to watch the video full-screen, just like you can on YouTube.
I can’t think of any technical reason to stop this becoming a feature of Twitter everyone can use in the near future. After the four week test, Twitter intends to “look at the results and will scale accordingly.” That could mean a much wider test on iOS, or performing a similar test on Android before a wider rollout.
