Today, if you look at your Twitter tmeline from your computer or iOS devices, you might notice that the videos or GIF images will auto play when you scroll through them. If you see a Vine post, expect it to autoplay too.
This is actually a new feature that Twitter is rolling out. It is not new. Facebook has this feature for a while already. Not sure if we can select to activate or deactivate this autoplay option or not. Not many will be happy if it kept loading videos while on data plan.
Check out How Autoplay Looks Like
BTW, Android users will have to wait for this feature. And for those in India and Indonesian, this feature is NOT available. Read the Press Release for more details.
Press Release
Introducing a more seamless video experience with autoplay
Singapore, 22 June 2015 – Today Twitter is introducing a more streamlined consumption experience for all native videos, GIFs and Vines on Twitter. These rich media creatives will now autoplay in timelines and across Twitter. Twitter has begun rolling out this change to iOS and web, with Android coming soon.
GIF URL: https://g.twimg.com/blog/blog/image/auto2_3.gif
When a user scrolls through his/her Twitter timeline and sees a video, that content will begin to automatically play while muted. Clicking on the video will bring the user into the full-screen viewer with sound and continue playing. As always, people can Retweet, favorite or comment on the video at any point. To keep the rich media experience consistent, seamless and friction-free, this also applies to GIFs and Vines shared on Twitter.
Also starting today, videos will appear in a larger, more media-centric format in timelines. During the autoplay tests Twitter ran, Twitter saw people engaging with videos in this new format at a much higher rate, and our brand and publishing partners saw improved view rates. All of this resulted in lower cost-per-views for marketers and increased video recall by consumers.
Promoting quality and trust: A new standard for video viewability
As with all of Twitter’s ad products, Twitter has made sure that Promoted Videos on the platform will continue to deliver high impact, high engagement and meaningful views for our advertising partners. To that end, Twitter is approaching how it measures, reports and charges for video views with complete transparency.
Twitter is delivering on a new standard for how brands will be charged for a video view. Starting today Twitter will only consider a view on its platform chargeable when a video is 100% in-view on the user’s device, and has been watched for at least 3 seconds. Twitter is putting this standard of 100% viewability in place because Twitter thinks it’s simply the right thing to do. If a video is not 100% in-view, Twitter does not think an advertiser should be charged.
“Viewability is one of the key drivers that make or break the effectiveness and ROI of any campaign, and we need to partner with platforms who understand this. Twitter continues to bring stronger value and deeper user engagement to their platform, and the evolution of its video product is a win/win for brands and the Twitter user experience.” – Ron Amram, Senior Media Director, Heineken USA
Further, Twitter will soon be working with multiple third-party verification vendors to give advertisers confidence that their Promoted Video content is reaching the right viewer with the right message. This is especially important when it comes to mobile video measurement. Twitter is in active discussions with both Nielsen and Moat to provide third-party verification of the metrics of Promoted Video campaigns to ensure our partners have complete transparency around the effectiveness of their marketing efforts on Twitter.
Autoplay – a better experience for users and brands
Twitter is continually testing new ways to deliver a better experience for consumers, brands and publishers on its platform. During our extensive tests of autoplay, Twitter saw that users liked this new approach – and it generated more views and engagements for advertisers. In fact:
People were 2.5X more likely to prefer autoplay videos over other viewing methods (including click-to-play and video preview thumbnails).
They have better video recall with autoplay. In fact, Twitter saw a significant 14% lift in video recall over other video formats.
For brands, during our autoplay tests Twitter saw a 7x increase in completions of Promoted Videos.
Twitter has done a lot to make discovering and watching videos on Twitter better for consumers and brands alike. By introducing autoplay and taking a stance on viewability, Twitter thinks it is now the premier platform for marketers to share and distribute the best video content in the world.
To learn more about the video opportunity on Twitter, visit video.twitter.com/about.
NOTE: Autoplay is not applicable to India and Indonesia.
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About Twitter:
Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) enables everyone to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers. The service can be accessed at Twitter.com, on a wide variety of mobile devices and via text message. Available in more than 35 languages, Twitter has more than 284 million monthly active users. For more information, visit discover.twitter.com or follow @TwitterSG.
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