Yelp Is Adding A New Video Feature To Its Reviews

Yelp is adding a new video feature to its app that will let users upload short clips in the same way that they would upload photos.

Yelp's mobile product manager, Madhu Prabaker, told Business Insider that the idea of the new feature is to help reviewers fully capture the atmosphere of a restaurant, store, or other small business, better than they could with photos alone.

"It will be a reward for businesses that go to great lengths to achieve a certain ambiance, whether by having a certain lighting or the music at just the right level," Prabaker says.

Each video can between 3 and 12 seconds long, and Yelp will start introducing the ability to upload videos to its "Elite users" in early June, before rolling the feature out to everyone else. Even if you can't upload videos right away, you'll start seeing them on mobile reviews in early June.

Right now, 70% of Yelp's photo uploads come from mobile, with 230,000 mobile photos uploaded per day.

We got a sneak peek at what the app will look like.

When a user wants to write a review, they will also be given the option to record a video:

Videos need to be 12 seconds or less, and you'll be able to see how much time you have left to record by a green circle on the screen:

Next, you can select a cover photo and leave a caption:

Yelp will use the technology that it has set in place to filter photos to make sure that no inappropriate videos last on the site.

As more and more people start submitting videos, the best, most helpful ones will automatically rise to the top: