Because TikTok wants to extend the duration of the videos

The social after increasing the length of its clips, is testing content that lasts five or ten minutes to give more freedom to its creators. With the risk of distortion

Photo: via Unsplash When TikTok began conducting tests last December to offer its users three-minute videos, it already seemed like a revolution for a platform that made the short clips it hosts - initially 15 seconds - and the frenetic pace with which these follow one another the main distinctive features and reasons for success.

The lengthening of the maximum duration of the videos that can be loaded on the app has finally reached at the beginning of July . However, TikTok seems to want to go beyond this limit. In fact, the latest rumors report that the social network owned by the Chinese ByteDance is already offering some of its users the opportunity to shoot five-minute videos.

The news was shared for the first time in a tweet by the consultant of social media Matt Navarra, who posted a screenshot of a TikTok notice announcing that users will now have the ability to upload longer videos. “Upload videos up to 5 minutes long from your device. Make sure you are using the latest version of TikTok before trying the feature on your app or on tiktok.com ”, the screenshot reads.

TikTok is testing a longer 5 minute video upload limit 🕺 🤳🏻 pic.twitter .com / qiRbJmHkma

- Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) August 25, 2021


According to the 9to5Mac website, some users have reported the ability to upload videos up to 10 minutes . This would mean that TikTok is testing variable length video limits together to figure out what can work best.

This is a radical change for the platform which has the brevity of its contents as its dominant feature but, as we know, in the world of social media, not evolving means disappearing.

At the time of introduction of the 3-minute limit TikTok had made it known that the novelty was designed to give people greater flexibility in creating their videos. The company specifically mentioned the tutorial formats, which are difficult to make and follow with a series of short clips.

This move could lead the ByteDance application to become a possible YouTube competitor for more videos. long, just as the site is making a reverse step by focusing on short clips with Shorts and rivaling TikTok.

Three, five or ten minutes duration would slow down the pace of the content that appears in the For you section and which allows you to keep your users glued to the screen. No one can imagine how the longer-form content will be received in an audience with ever shorter attention spans, nor how the TikTok algorithm will behave and which videos it will choose to favor. YouTube, for example, prefers long content.

To prevent more full-bodied videos from dropping users' attention too much, the platform could also create a new dedicated section, a bit like Instagram did with Igtv.

The reasoning behind this lengthening is however quite simple. The longer a video is, the more time you spend watching it, if it's interesting. Additionally, advertisers may also like the longer format because it gives them more time to get their message across. The challenge on the horizon for TikTok seems to be to keep users engaged for several minutes and for this reason we would not be surprised if other news or tools for creators arrive soon.

However, uniqueness and the identity of the app. If, as we have said, changing and adding features for social media is essential to offer a renewed experience to users and potentially expand their audience, the risk, however, is in the long run that of a certain standardization between platforms. For example, the emblematic cases of the audio rooms, which at Clubhouse are finding space on almost all the other apps, and that of the Stories teach this.

By the way, Matt Navarra always reported that the ByteDance app is working on a sort of TikTok Stories, another Instagram copy function that will allow users to post content that disappears after 24 hours.


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Topics

Social media Tiktok globalData.fldTopic = "Social media, Tiktok "

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