Continuing its multimedia push, Twitter is rolling out a feature to make watching videos on the platform much easier.
As reported today by the New York Times, the social media network is using Twitter Cards to give video a more prominent display in users’ timelines. Instead of showing up as a link, that requires several clicks to view, video items will display with an inline thumbnail. It’s how Twitter’s six-second Vine video already show up and is obviously more clickable.
This is a natural enhancement for Twitter as it pushes to move beyond its 140-character beginnings. Last October it started displaying expanded photos in user timelines.
“Video will begin to feel like a native experience,” said Kevin Weil, vice president of product for revenue at Twitter, told the Times. “We’re making it easier for people to do what they want to do.”
Twitter is offering the tool first to Amplify partners, ReadWrite reported, and gave a taste of things to come last night on the account of the National Basketball Assn. The results are currently visible on Twitter.com and iOS and Android devices, but not yet in embedded tweets, as you can see here:
Vintage Parker to Duncan. @Spurs starting to pull away from @Lakers. #NBARapidReplay on @ESPN http://t.co/xKYRQVqgj0 — NBA (@NBA) March 20, 2014
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