It’s been an eventful week in US politics, but one topic that’s dominated the internet has been the imminent banning of TikTok by the US Supreme Court. X’s competitors wasted no time circling the TikTok refugees while rubbing their hands.
The Chinese video app was only down for half a day over the weekend but that didn’t stop social media companies like Elon Musk’s X from rolling out a new videos tab, where users can scratch their short-form video content itch.
‘Videos’ x machina
The “Videos” page replaces the previous “Community” page on the navigation bar. The new tab takes you to a feed of exclusively vertical videos based on users’ interests and the accounts they follow. The update is mobile-only for now with X announcing the rollout to US users on Sunday, 19 January.
It seems reports of TikTok’s death were greatly exaggerated as Donald Trump came to its rescue to bring the app back online. The app was only down for half a day, but that didn’t stop certain social media competitors from muscling in on its territory. Instagram launched Edits, its own CapCut-inspired video editing function, in an attempt to replace the app popular with TikTok creators.
The dedicated video feed mostly plays videos in a 9:16 aspect ratio but also features the odd landscape clip, much akin to Instagram. Information regarding the future of this new feature is scant. There’s no word of a global rollout, nor the long-term viability of this feature now that it seems TikTok is staying open to the US public. If YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels are any indication, then it is likely this dedicated video tab is here to stay.
