Twitter Looks at Potential Changes with Photo and Video Capabilities

One of the things that appeals to me about Twitter is that they seem to be regularly changing and making upgrades to appeal to their users. And their users have been incredibly creative too. When I originally heard the concept, I was a little puzzled and thought “140 characters?”. I mean, really, what can you do with 140 characters. (I never did do well with the short answer questions in school, if you are wondering.) However, time, patience, and watching have proven that you can do a fair bit with that many characters: conversations, customer service, and business promotion are all happening at top speed on Twitter.

Let’s just say that I can admit that I was a little narrow-sighted on the matter.

Last Tuesday, Chris Crum let us know about another new feature Twitter is playing with in his article, “Twitter Tests In-Stream Photos and Videos”. Twitter has introduced to a few people a feature that gives users the ability to post videos and photos. Twitter made the following statement about it: “We’re constantly exploring features and settings. What you saw was a small test of a potential consumption setting for inline media. We show inline media on our own iPhone and Android (Android) apps.”

Now, not all of us who tweet snippets of our lives and businesses have had the opportunity to explore this new feature, but for the accounts that had photo and video capabilities for this test, Twitter gave a descriptions that said, “By default, you’ll only see images and videos shared by people you’re following, and reveal those by people you’re not. Check this box to see media from everyone on Twitter.” I didn’t have it myself, but I have similar features on other social media sites and they are fun.

In the end, we don’t know if Twitter is going to make this a permanent feature or whether they are testing it out just for now and will end up deciding to shelve it. But my personal bet is that this isn’t the last we hear of this particular feature. It expands the capabilities of this particular platform, allows users to expand their creative expressions, and, like I said before, it’s just fun to use photos and videos.

This time, instead of scratching my head I am eying up the possibilities. If I’m already thinking about the possibilities, you can bet that businesses are already beginning to ponder great new ways to use this feature to appeal to their customers.