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    Categories: Twitter

Twitter Begins Testing Autoplay Videos for iOS Users

Twitter has followed the lead of both Facebook and YouTube by testing autoplay videos that appear in the news stream for some Twitter users.

The test is for users on Twitter through the iOS apps on both iPhone and iPad.  Some users will see the videos autoplay in their entirety.  Others will only see a six second preview of the video which is continuously looped.  These autoplay videos will be muted when they play.

When a user clicks on the regular video or the teaser video, Twitter will then expand the video to full screen complete with sound.

Promoted video ads are included in the test, which will result in a huge bump in video views for those videos.  Pre-roll video ads are also included in the test.  But interestingly, Twitter is not testing autoplaying Vine videos at this time.

When Facebook began autoplaying their own videos on the platform, it managed to hugely increase their share of video views on the web.  And of course, the more video views a social media platform can claim, the higher rate it can command for their video ads as well as for attracting popular brands and celebrities to the platform.

It is not known if Twitter plans to expand their autoplay test beyond iOS.  However, due to the success of both Facebook and YouTube’s autoplay, it is expected that this will become standard.

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Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post
Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing, working in the industry for almost 20 years. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, State of Search, Brighton SEO and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.
Jennifer Slegg :Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing, working in the industry for almost 20 years. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, State of Search, Brighton SEO and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.