It looks like Twitter is planning to give its users a lot more creativity in the photo and video department soon. That’s according to numerous images posted by Taylor Swift, Pharrell Williams and others popstars, who appeared to have access to unreleased editing features from Twitter at MTV’s VMA awards show this weekend.
Lara Cohen, who is Twitter’s Director of Entertainment Talent, highlighted the new photos with tweets that implied (and seemingly confirmed) that the stars were roadtesting something new. It isn’t clear if this is a standalone app, or just an extension of the photo/videos features inside Twitter’s mobile apps. Photo functionality is limited to filters and cropping right now and Twitter only added native video capture on mobile this year. Nonetheless, it looks like you might soon be able to add stickers, your own doodles, text and more to photos and short video clips.
OMG @taylorswift13 with these new photo tools. #icant #boom #VMAs #VMAs #VMAs @AmbuLance @jinen https://t.co/5m5GvuBOqf
— Lara Cohen 💅🏼 (@Larakate) August 30, 2015
(@jinen, which is included in Cohen’s tweet, is the handle belonging to Twitter Product Manager Jinen Kamdar — another hint at something that is, or has been, in development.)
More new photo tricks and stickerzzzz from @taylorswift13 all hail the queen!!! https://t.co/btibsViDI5
— Lara Cohen 💅🏼 (@Larakate) August 31, 2015
I see you w our new cam @Pharrell @ddlovato 📷📷📷📷📷📷 https://t.co/t3H4FUXQ2B
— Lara Cohen 💅🏼 (@Larakate) August 31, 2015
Love @BigSean love him using our new camera tools https://t.co/tQnQkMcqS2
— Lara Cohen 💅🏼 (@Larakate) August 31, 2015
So what is Twitter cooking up?
Here are some of the video clips and photos that Swift and co created:
https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/638055614980075520
https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/638121494405496833
https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/638152747708100608
https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/638194847057244160
Nice meeting you @ddlovato ✌🏾️ #VMAs pic.twitter.com/NtZXuaWSf5
— Pharrell Williams (@Pharrell) August 31, 2015
Heading to the #vma up for a couple, pray for me! pic.twitter.com/7rGiblteH9
— Sean Don (@BigSean) August 30, 2015
Twitter removed the metadata which shows which app a tweet is posted from (it was once useful for sleuthing) from most clients, but it remains in tact for TweetDeck. Interestingly though, Swift’s video tweets don’t show up as being from any client in TweetDeck (here’s a screenshot) which you could take to mean it is from a new app. Perhaps… maybe.
Regardless, it looks like Twitter is zoning in on photos and video. We know people like emoji and stickers, and putting those options right into camera could increase engagement and convince users to post photos on Twitter instead of (or in addition to) Instagram, Facebook and other social networking apps. Instagram, in particular, has developed into a juggernault. With 300 million active users, the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app is already bigger than Twitter. It just began allowing portrait and landscape photos for the first time, but offers nothing quite like stickers or text overlays.
We’ve asked Twitter for more information about what Taylor Swift and the gang were using, and when it will be available for the rest of us mere normals. We’ll let you know what the company says.
Update: A blog post about the U.S. open tennis tournament showed that top tennis players are also playing with the new photo editing options.
How about that standalone DM app next, eh Twitter?
Hat tip @AnthonyQuintano
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