Twitter enables videos, group chats feature

Washington: The long wait for posting group messages and videos is over for Twitter users, as the social networking website on Tuesday revealed that users can now use the features from the iOS and Android apps.

Twitter revealed the features on Tuesday which now allows users to post 30-second video clips to their account and direct messages have expanded to let a user post messages to groups of up to 20 people, creating a place for more private conversations on the site.

The changes, which would roll out over the next several days, both address significant competitive needs for Twitter, with one letting users post videos helps to level the playing field with Facebook, which is dramatically increasing the amount of video in the News Feed, The Verge reported.

Moreover, group DMs help Twitter recapture some of the conversations that migrated off the service to the many other social networks that enable multi-person chat.

Twitter's new video is similar to its short-form video service, Vine. To take video, one simply taps and holds their phone's screen, and it also allows a user to record multiple segments and delete a segment with a tap.

A user can also upload a clip of up to 30 seconds from their phone's camera roll. However, for now, camera roll uploads are available only on iOS, with Android soon to come.

But, the video won't play automatically on ones timeline. Twitter is home to a large number public figures, athletes, and celebrities, and many of them are likely to embrace video.

Moreover, with the much-needed group chat update, anyone can host group discussions, and anyone in the group can invite anyone who follows that person back. But not everyone has to follow each other to get the chat to work, and Twitter has revealed that this would result in a user meeting more people and having more conversations there than one might otherwise.