Hour-long TikTok videos are being tested
TikTok has confirmed to CBS News that its currently testing a new feature that would allow some users to upload and watch 60-minute long videos.
Only a select few random users are part of the current trial phase, TikTok shared with CBS News.
“The company added that it has no immediate plans to roll the capability out more widely to its community, noting that it routinely experiments with features that do not become permanent,” CBS News reported.
According to TechCrunch, TikTok had been slowly increasing the time limits for videos on the app over the past few years.
“TikTok says that while creators can weave multipart stories together by telling viewers to go to part two or more of a story, it often hears from creators who want more time for things like cooking demos, beauty tutorials, educational lesson plans, comedic sketches and more.The purpose of the increased time limit is to give creators the opportunity to experiment with new or expanded types of content with more flexibility,” TechCrunch reported.
Right now, users can only publish up to 10 minutes of footage to TikTok, according to CBS News. That’s greater than the time limit of 15 seconds that was in place when the app came out in 2016.
A Threads post from social media consultant Matt Navarra shared, “TikTok is now testing 60 MINUTE video uploads ⏱️🔥,” with a screenshot of what appears to be of TikTok explaining that 60-minute long videos can be uploaded.
Navarra told CBS Moneywatch that “enabling long-form videos is a way for TikTok to get users to spend more time on the app, while also discouraging them from leaving the platform to find such content.”
Several companies and influencers have already been posting long-form video content on TikTok, but they’ve had to split the videos up into multiple parts.
TechCrunch notes that the entertainment company Peacock started uploading episodes of its TV show “Killing It” onto TikTok in short segments.
TechCrunch added that the same tactic is used by entertainment companies on YouTube to draw new viewers into their shows. For example, they might make the entire first episode of a TV show available for free on YouTube.
A recent feature that has rolled out on the TikTok app includes fast-forwarding videos by only holding down the right side of a video and the testing of implementing horizontal format videos, according to TechCrunch.
