As part of a tiered launch of new features on the social network, Twitter announced support for group messaging between 20 of your closest friends as well as a video recording function that’s built directly into the mobile application. Detailed within a post on the official Twitter blog, the new group messaging feature is now part of the direct message system. Conceptually, users will be able to respond directly to a larger group of users that responded to a recent tweet or perhaps retweeted a popular tweet.
New! Use Direct Messages to speak privately with a group of up to 20 people. Share Tweets, show emoji & be yourself. https://t.co/8giGhC6OO0
— Twitter (@twitter) January 27, 2015
Interestingly, the people within the group don’t need to follow each other in order to be included on the message. When a user is included in a group message, they will receive a notification. Hypothetically, this could be ideal for brands that are using Twitter as a customer service tool. For instance, a CS rep could respond to 20 people that are posting the same complaint, such as a power outage in a specific area of the country.
Beyond group messaging, the new video recording function will allow users to record up to 30 seconds of video and post it directly to their Twitter feed. This will be ideal for live events and will avoid having to open up an additional app to shoot a video. that being said, Twitter for iPhone will allow users to upload videos shot by the main camera application. That feature is also rolling out to Android users as well.
Within the feed, users will be able to scroll through video thumbnails and simply tap the video thumbnail to start the video. Neil Patrick Harris, host of this year’s Academy Awards show, recently used the feature to show off a short, behind-the-scenes video of the Oscars production.
Check out my Twitter video #Oscar exclusive! I gots me a scoop! pic.twitter.com/SGQ3oJHDqZ — Neil Patrick Harris (@ActuallyNPH) January 27, 2015
