Short-form video content platform, Tiktok, is rolling out the ability to publish videos with lengths triple what users have access to at the moment. The social network has since its beginning only supported 60 seconds worth of video content; a successful length that is short enough to go viral and not too long to be boring.
However, as of December of 2020, the company started rolling out tests to a few users, allowing them to publish videos of up to three minutes.
The company has today announced through its product manager, Drew Kirchhoff, that it will be rolling out this ability to all its users over the next coming weeks, giving creators the chance to exercise richer story-telling and entertainment.
“With all the ways our community has redefined expression in under 60 seconds, we’re excited to see how people continue to entertain and inspire with a few more seconds – and a world of creative possibilities.” Wrote Drew Kirchhoff in a blogpost.
Once a user’s account is ready to use this flexibility feature for video length, Tiktok will send a notification to inform of availability in the creator toolbox. A three-minute-long video on Tiktok might feel a lot more like watching a YouTube video or an IGTV video so I am particularly curious to see whether this brings competition to either platform, especially YouTube.
It is however still early to spectate actual mass user reaction to this new feature, considering the case of Twitter where several people were upset with the introduction of up to 280 characters per tweet, but look at us now!
“We often hear from creators that they’d love just a little more time to bring their cooking demos, elaborate beauty tutorials, educational lesson plans, and comedic sketches to life with TikTok’s creative tools. With longer videos, creators will have the canvas to create new or expanded types of content on TikTok, with the flexibility of a bit more space,” reads the Tiktok blog statement.
Would you sit through a three-minute-long Tiktok Video?
