TikTok is testing a feature that would allow users to upload 60-minute videos, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Thursday. The feature is available to a limited group of users in some markets, and TikTok says it has no immediate plans to make the feature widely available.
The feature was first discovered by social media consultant Matt Navarra and marks a shift from TikTok's original format. The app allowed users to upload 15-second videos at launch, but TikTok has increased that limit in recent years. Although the company gained popularity with its short-form video format, it has slowly adopted long-form content to compete with one of its biggest competitors, YouTube.
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According to TikTok, creators can weave together multi-part stories by instructing viewers to go to two or more parts of the story, but they can also create cooking demos, beauty tutorials, educational lesson plans, etc. He says he often hears from creators that they wish they could spend more time doing comedy sketches. more.
The company said the purpose of the extended time limit is to give creators more flexibility and the opportunity to try new and expanded types of content. Of course, this puts TikTok in even more direct competition with YouTube. By allowing creators to upload 60-minute videos to TikTok, the company is presumably hoping that creators who normally post content on YouTube will also post videos to its platform.
The expanded time limit could also allow people to post new types of content to TikTok, including full episodes of TV shows.
Last year, Peacock made episode 1 of “Killing It” available for free on TikTok, but it was divided into five parts. If TikTok starts limiting uploads to 60 minutes, networks won't have to split episodes into multiple parts.
Many networks already upload the first episode of their TV shows to YouTube to reach new viewers, and this expanded time limit will allow them to do the same on TikTok. Networks already use TikTok to reach their audiences, and expanding upload time limits could encourage them to share more content on TikTok.
While not everyone is interested in watching long-form content on TikTok, the company has sought to improve the viewing experience for users who watch long-form content. For example, the company is testing horizontal full-screen mode and scrubbing thumbnails for videos. Last year, it also released a feature that allows you to fast-forward a video by long-pressing on the right side of the video.
As with other testing features, it's unclear when or if TikTok plans to launch the 60-minute video upload option broadly.