Twitter has joined other social networks to automatically play back all shared native videos, GIFs and Twitter-owned Vines by default on the iOS app and the web client. This update will also be rolling out soon to Android users, according to David Reagan's blog post, Twitter's senior product manager.
Similar to the other streamlined networks like Facebook, the autoplaying media content will initially be on mute as the user scrolls part it and will only launch fullscreen with audio after the user clicks on the video. The company claims people are more engaged with videos that appear "in a larger, more media-centric format," based on its early tests.
Thankfully for Twitter users with high data costs or low bandwidth, one can conveniently opt to the previous click-to-play settings to avoid slow performance or unexpected charges.
For mobile users, just go over the profile menu and click the gear icon for the 'Settings' and then tap the 'Video autoplay' in the middle. One can also choose to autoplay videos only when connected to a Wi-Fi network or click the 'Never play videos automatically' option. For more details on changing the settings, Twitter users could always check out the company's Help Center.
Meanwhile, Twitter's publishing partners can definitely use increased view rates for their video ads. It has been reported that 90 percent of the company's revenue comes from advertising, and similar to rivals Google and Facebook, Twitter wants to move forward with its business by earning while autoplaying video ads.
According to the results of the autoplay tests, subscribers were 2.5 times more likely to choose autoplay videos compared to video preview thumbnails or click-to-play videos. The company also boasts of a seven times increase in viewed promotional videos during its testing.
Twitter also announced to its advertisers that they would only be charged if the video ad has been watched on fullscreen and for at least three seconds. Twitter says it is unfair if its business partners are billed even though their video ads were not viewed.
"It really fits in well with a lot of the direction and strategy we've been taking with the product," said Baljeet Singh, Twitter's product director for media, TV and video.
Photo: Howard Lake | Flickr
