Twitter announced a media sharing update that, along with another update, makes it easier to find videos and essentially turns Twitter into a media sharing platform.
The announcement clearly and unequivocally states that it aims to be “the best place to share media,” and published examples of the new features.
As of today, any users of the Twitter app can upload up to four videos, images and/or GIFs in a single tweet.
This change is related to another major update that adds a video carousel to the “Browse” feature.
The video carousel allows users to find more videos to watch.
Twitter’s announcement makes it clear that their goal is to transform their platform from a mostly text-based social network to a multimedia sharing platform.
According to the announcement:
“This update is the latest example of how we are working to make Twitter the easiest and most convenient place to share images, videos and other creative content.
It complements the release of two new video products — full-screen videos and a new video carousel in the “Review” tab — that help people find and watch what’s happening on Twitter more easily than ever.”
The purpose of this update is to give creators the ability to express themselves, and the updates to the video carousel help users find new videos.
Twitter explained:
“Mixing different types of visual content into one tweet allows creators to express themselves beyond 280 characters and gives them more ways to tell their story.”
But none of these updates resulted in significant changes to the platform itself.
These new updates are important because they fundamentally change what Twitter is, transforming itself from a text messaging platform to a social media sharing site.