Last week we reported that Instagram is rolling out a test of a Tik Tok like feature. The Instagram test will make the feed much more immersive by making pictures and video much longer and, therefore, taking up much more of the screen. If you are thinking that sounds a lot like the Tik Tok interface, you would be right. Well, now it looks like Twitter is testing a very similar Tik Tok-like feature on its Explore tab.
The test has been spotted by social media expert Matt Navarra who has shared screengrabs of the feature on his Twitter account. His tweet says very simply, “My Twitter is now Tik Tok.”
It is not surprising that everybody is copying Tik Tok considering that the Chinese social app is now even bigger than Google. It is funny, though, that Twitter is copying Tik Tok as the social media giant bought and then discontinued Vine, which was the spiritual ancestor of the Tik Tok itself.
Navarra’s simple tweet isn’t an overstatement either. Twitter really is going full Tik Tok. If you watch his screengrabs, you can see that the new Explore tab Twitter is testing looks pretty much exactly like Tik Tok does.
On the test version, Explore is split into 2 tabs, Trending and For You. If you select Trending, you can then also decide to look at Personalized trending topics or Top trends in general. Then when you go over to the For you section you get the full Tik Tok experience. You can scroll through full-screen video and image tweets. In the midst of these media-based tweets, you will also get text tweets showing intermittently too.
The key to note here is the snap between each tweet. This ensures that, like on Tik Tok, there will only ever be one post on the screen at a time. If Twitter rolls out this feature it means they will be able to record user engagement data on individual tweets. This isn’t currently possible for Twitter with the app normally showing multiple tweets at the same time as you scroll through the feed. This highly attuned data is widely attributed as what gives the Tik Tok algorithm such an edge over other social networks and is likely why we’ve seen two major competitors testing ways to implement it themselves over the last week.
Twitter is still only calling this a limited test, although the test has been running since December. That means we’ll have to wait and see if this feature will get a general rollout. In the meantime, however, check out our 20 Twitter tips that will help you become a social media pro.
Image via: Twitter
