On Thursday, TikTok revealed to Eltrys that users will soon be able to post 60-minute movies. Only a small group of people in certain markets have access to the tool, and TikTok has no immediate plans to make it available to everyone.
Social media expert Matt Navarra first discovered the feature, which differs from TikTok’s previous functionality. When the app first came out, users could only post 15-second videos. But over the past few years, TikTok has been raising that limit. The company became famous for its short-form videos, but it has been slowly adding long-form videos to compete with YouTube, which is one of its biggest rivals.
TikTok says that creators can link stories that have more than one part by asking viewers to go to part two or more of the story. However, the company often hears from creators who want more time for things like beauty tips, food demos, lesson plans, comedy sketches, and more.
According to the company, the extended time limit aims to provide artists with greater flexibility to experiment with new or expanded content types. This does, of course, make TikTok even more of a straight rival to YouTube. Since TikTok now lets creators post 60-minute videos, the company is probably hoping that producers who usually post on YouTube will also post their videos on TikTok.
With the longer time limit, TikTok might also be able to post a new type of content: full episodes of TV shows.
Last year, TikTok offered the first episode of “Killing It” for free, albeit in five parts. If TikTok starts limiting videos to 60 minutes, networks won’t have to split up episodes into different parts.
Many networks already post the first episode of a TV show on YouTube to attract new users. Given the expanded time limit, networks could potentially replicate this strategy on TikTok. Networks already use TikTok to reach users, and the longer sharing time limit might make them want to post more videos on the app.
TikTok has been working to improve the viewing experience for people who do watch long-form material, even though not everyone would be interested in it. The company has been experimenting with things like a horizontal full-screen mode and icons that allow you to move between videos. Last year, it also added a feature that lets you skip ahead in movies by pressing and holding the right side of the screen.
We don’t know when or if TikTok will make the 60-minute video sharing feature available to everyone, just like with any test feature.
