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- Twitter's product team is working on an easy-to-use camera for its app to allow users to more easily share what's going on around them, according to a Thursday report.
- CEO Jack Dorsey has referred to Twitter's current video-sharing experience as "confusing," and complimented Snapchat's use of video, which has already been adopted by Facebook.
- A working demo for the feature reportedly exists, but could change over the next several months since no release date has been set.
Twitter might be joining its social media counterparts in the instant video-sharing phenomenon by adding an easily-accessible camera feature to its app design.
The tool, which doesn't have a final design or timing for its release, according to Bloomberg's Selina Wang, is intended to attract more users by allowing them to quickly and easily share what's going on directly around them À la Snapchat. There's a working demo, but Twitter's plans for the feature could still change, Bloomberg notes.
Facebook implemented a similar feature in both its flagship product and Instagram in 2016, in a move that stepped on Snap's biggest competitive advantage, but was a successful addition for Facebook on both platforms. The same year, CEO Jack Dorsey called Twitter's experience "confusing" in an interview with Recode, commending Snap on "recognizing that we're going to press buttons less and gesture more."
Twitter has continued to make changes to its product in recent years in an attempt to boost engagement and time spent in the app, with a push for live video deals under former COO Anthony Noto's tenure. Twitter recently doubled the number of characters allowed in a tweet in hopes of allowing users to be more expressive, along with a new threaded tweet feature for those unfamiliar with how to link their tweets together. The company has been adding fewer and fewer monthly active users per quarter since 2010 according to data from Statista, and Dorsey could view easy-to-share video as the next way to go about fixing that.
Solid earnings for the past few quarters have carried its stock price, but an announcement that Noto was leaving to become the CEO of SoFi scared some investors on the heels of Twitter's Q4 earnings report. If the working demo turns into a full-fledged feature that boosts engagement, it could be more pleasant news for Dorsey and investors.
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