Moving pictures next to still ones?! What WILL they think of next?
Twitter currently limits how you can use media in a Tweet, restricting you to either a still photo, a video, or a GIF. In the last two cases, you can only embed a single piece of animated media in a Tweet, but you can have up to four still images in one, and you can’t cross between the categories. The company has been working on expanding how this works so that you can use multiple types of media together in one Tweet, and it has confirmed that it’s recently started testing the feature and may be available for some customers.
The change was previously spotted in teardowns, and at least one customer has spotted a dialog that discusses the test.
The change was confirmed to TechCrunch by Twitter early this morning, with a company representative supplying the following details to the publisher in a statement:
“We’re testing a new feature with select accounts for a limited time that will allow people to mix up to four media assets into a single tweet, regardless of format. We’re seeing people have more visual conversations on Twitter and are using images, GIFS and videos to make these conversations more exciting. With this test we’re hoping to learn how people combine these different media formats to express themselves more creatively on Twitter beyond 280 characters.”
According to those details, the test is currently limited, allowing users to extend that same limit of four images to include other types of animated media in a mix-and-match format — so a Tweet could have three photos and a video; a video, a GIF, and a photo; four GIFS; etc.
Twitter Blue subscribers sometimes get to test features early, according to the subscription’s benefits, so those paying for the service may be among the first to get to use it. On that note, the price just went up from $2.99 to $4.99.
Other recent tests included a Notes feature which allows users to write content longer than 280 characters. A Status feature has also been spotted in teardowns and recently appeared in testing, as has a CoTweet feature to let two accounts publish content together.
