Since its creation, TikTok has become more than just that simple platform to post short clips. People have built entire careers off of the app. Not only that but they can post up to 10-minute-long videos to TikTok. It’s become a full-fledged video-sharing platform. It’s a force to be reckoned with, and not much can stop it. Even the American government is trying to fight TikTok’s dominance in the states.
TikTok is testing horizontal videos
One of the main things that TikTok is known for is popularizing the vertical scrolling video feed. Think of it as the Tinder of video-sharing platforms. Only, instead of swiping right, you’re swiping up. However, it seems that the company wants to expand along the horizon. TikTok confirmed with TechCrunch that it is currently testing horizontal video feeds amongst a select number of users globally. The company refers to this as “full-screen mode.” When you tap on the full-screen icon, the phone will switch to horizontal mode. We expect all of the UI elements to disappear like the “like”, comment, share, profile, repost, and other buttons. However, we’ll have to wait until we get a visual before we can confirm that. This feature may work for all videos posted Tik Tok already. So, even vertical videos may be viewed horizontally. But this could also open the door for people to post horizontal videos to the platform. Undoubtedly, this will be a massive shot at YouTube. One thing that YouTube had going for it was the fact that you could sit down and really get comfortable with a piece of long-form content. Now that TikTok users can post 10-minute-long videos, and it’s soon to allow horizontal videos, it could become its own version of YouTube. It’s definitely a smack to YouTube’s face, as the company is scrambling to make Shorts a big thing. So, for TikTok to turn around and make it big with horizontal videos only adds insult to injury. For the time being, we don’t quite know when TikTok is going to unveil its horizontal videos. We will keep you posted as this story develops
