After testing it out for over a year, X has now launched its new, dedicated video tab in the bottom function bar of the app, with U.S. users now able to quickly access the platform’s full-screen immersive video feed.
As you can see in this example, U.S. users with the latest version of the app now have an alternative lower function bar display, with a play button icon replacing the “Communities” tab, in order to make it easier for users to access X’s growing range of video content.
And given that video views in the app have increased 40% year-over-year, and X is calling itself a “video first” platform, in alignment with its original content push, it makes sense for the company to put more focus on this element.
As noted, X has been testing a dedicated video tab since January last year, though it was only added to the back-end code of the app earlier this month.
As you can see in this example, X’s original video tab was in testing before the Grok button existed, and it is interesting to consider whether adding an extra button to the lower function bar will actually be a positive or negative move for the app.
Previous Twitter management had opted to keep the options here limited, with the main focus being on new users, and simplifying its functionality. Indeed, the Twitter team was super concerned about adding an extra button on that lower bar in 2015, when Twitter launched “Moments”.
Twitter eventually removed the Moments tab, and reverted back to having only four options in this section. But Twitter was also, again, highly concerned that new users were having trouble understanding how to use the app, which was part of the reason, it believed, that it was struggling to grow its user base.
Maybe that assumption didn’t prove correct, or maybe, X is less concerned about attracting new users. I mean, it definitely isn’t growing, at least not at any significant rate. X has been sitting on 250 million daily active users for over two years now, so maybe, the convenience of its regular users is more important than simplifying the app for this purpose.
Whatever the logic, X is looking to make video more of a focus, which will eventually see a broader roll out of this new, dedicated video tab.
And as X continues to push to add more content to its video slate, that could help to drive more time spent, and more opportunity for video ads.
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