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X is giving its video player UI a refresh, as it looks to lean into video consumption in the app.
As you can see in this example, posted by app researcher Radu Oncescu, X has got a new design for the interaction display on videos within its dedicated video tab, which puts more focus on the playback controls at the bottom of the screen.
Tapping into the post/caption element will give you an alternative view of the video details, based on the original post, while you’ll also be able to access a new menu for video playback controls from the full-screen display.
It’s another step towards making X a “video first” platform, which X had made a big deal about last year, under the leadership of then CEO Linda Yaccarino, after seeing a rise in video consumption behavior in the app.
Last December, X reported a 40% increase in video views year-over-year, and with Yaccarino having built her career in TV, it seemed like a logical fit to focus on boosting video engagement, through exclusive content deals and promotions designed to get more people engaging with more video in the app.
That was led by the development of X’s full-screen video feed, its own version of TikTok or Reels, using the existing database of videos posted to the platform to enhance video engagement.
But following Yaccarino’s departure in July, X shifted focus to AI instead, and building on xAI’s Grok tools, as a means to tap into the rising hype around AI content.
On that front, X’s broader emphasis of late has been on AI-generated video, with its Grok chatbot now able to create video clips from text prompts, with X’s “Imagine” functionality.
Which itself got a “major upgrade” last week, according to Musk, which no doubt comes in response to OpenAI launching its Sora app.
The upgraded video player UI seems like another part of this strategy, focusing on building, as Musk has labelled it, an AI version of Vine, in order to compete with the rising interest in AI video generation.
Will that pay off?
I mean, Meta rolled out its own dedicated feed of AI-generated videos last month, to a lukewarm reception, yet OpenAI’s Sora, which is seemingly producing more realistic–looking depictions, immediately shot to the top of the download charts, boosted, in part, by its invite-only hype.
It seems like this is more a novelty than a genuine trend, and that people will quickly tire of creating videos of themselves in cinematic scenarios. But anything that OpenAI does, Elon tries to do better, driven by spite over his ouster from OpenAI back in 2018.
So it’s not surprising that X is pushing whatever OpenAI is going for at any given time, though I suspect the trend of AI-generated clips will be short-lived.