TikTok is thinking about changing the maximum length of its videos: it would be a revolution that could lead the platform to new markets.
Change of course in sight for TikTok: the social network dedicated to short viral videos could, soon, allow its users to publish long videos. Before changing the rules of the game, however, the platform would like to test the opinions of the public, in order to be sure that the option is in line with the needs of its creators.
Currently TikTok videos are on average 15 seconds long. It is precisely on this format that the social network, beloved by young people, has been based so far, particularly short and with greater impact. The videos, in fact, are particularly incisive not only because of their content but also because of their brevity, which makes it possible to see several of them in a short amount of time. In case of need, however, the platform allows its creators to chain a greater number of videos in the stories, thus creating content with a maximum total length of 60 seconds, or up to four times the duration of a single publication.
Long videos on TikTok, the point of the situation
The news of the change to the duration of TikTok videos came with a tweet by Matt Navarra, an expert in the social media sector, who published an image of a screen relating to the update. From what we learn, the implementation of the new feature would still be in a test phase and available only to a limited circle of users.
The main information that emerges, however, is extremely clear: the will of TikTok is to extend up to three minutes the duration of its videos. An epoch-making change, therefore, that could transform the platform into a miniature version of other competitors, already present on the market and with an audience more calibrated on longer contents. Just as competitors are launching short videos to attract TikTok's audience: YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, Shapchat Highlights.
At the moment, however, TikTok has not released any further information on the matter and therefore it is not possible to predict when the feature will be extended to all its users. Certainly, the desire to rethink one of the social network's cornerstones by lengthening the time to three minutes is clearly strong.
Long videos on TikTok, what does it change for creators?"
From the creators' perspective, this move could potentially result in a double-edged sword. In fact, if most current videos run out of time in the span of a few seconds, a longer length could push users toward more complex and less incisive narratives than they do today on TikTok.
However, thanks to a duration of 3 minutes, TikTok could also become an excellent platform on which to publish music videos and trailers for movies and TV series.
TikTok and long videos, not the first social network to change format
Although it is the novelty of the moment, the social network is not the first to change the basic format of publications. In the past, another platform had already done the same, however, finding a particular appreciation from the public: we are obviously talking about Twitter that, in 2017, doubled the length of its posts from 140 to 280 characters, also allowing the concatenation of several posts for more substantial content.