Twitter Unveils 30-Second Video, Direct Messaging Expansion

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Twitter is rolling out video and messaging features designed to get you to use its services more.

The two latest features just announced by Twitter:

  • Send a direct message to as many as 20 people at a time, instead of just one. “The group function lets you start conversations with any of your followers, and they don’t all need to follow one another in order to chat. You can create a group in just a few taps. When you’re added to a group, you’ll get a notification.” You may get to meet more people this way, Twitter says.
  • Shoot and post 30-second video clips from iOS and Android apps and mobile video cameras. Twitter enlisted entertainer Neil Patrick Harris to introduce the video service. You can see his tweet and video clip here. Instructions on using videos on Twitter are here. Uploading to Twitter from an iPhone camera roll is available immediately; for Android, soon.

Trying to be known as more than a 140-characters-at-a-time micro-blogging site, Twitter is the 10th largest social media network, based on its 284 million active accounts; Facebook is No. 1 with nearly 1.4 billion. About 500 million tweets a day are posted, Twitter says.

According to The Verge, “Letting users post videos helps to level the playing field with Facebook, which is dramatically increasing the amount of video in the News Feed. And group DMs help Twitter recapture some of the conversations that migrated off the service to the many other social networks that enable multiperson chat.”

Twitter already has Vine, its 6-second video service. With the new additions, it is trying to speed its growth in users and the amount of time people spend on its site.

Executives have promised improvements to make the social network more inviting, says The New York Times.

The new services follow Twitter’s introduction in early January of its “while you were away” service, which, says The Verge, recaps tweets you’ve missed since last opening the app and surfaces them at the top of your timeline.

Will Twitter’s new features tempt you to use its site more? Let us know by commenting here, or posting to Money Talks News Facebook page.

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