TikTok is ready to extend again the maximum duration of videos, currently set at three minutes; moreover, Stories are being tested
One of the reasons for the overwhelming success of TikTok is certainly its characteristic and incisive format, which has been able to conquer millions of users all over the world. Only videos, moreover short, and no photos, unlike Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, the social networks with which the Chinese platform has had to compete since its debut.
And yet TikTok seems to be following an old maxim, that of not resting on its laurels once success has arrived. And if yesterday we told how the eastern social network is planning the effects of the future through augmented reality, today we learn that TikTok is not only testing five-minute videos, which would be a real revolution compared to the current format, but also the Stories, which would evidently “borrow” from the competition: from Snapchat, which introduced them before the others, from Instagram, which followed the first one closely, and from Facebook, which among the most famous was the last social network to have introduced them. Here, TikTok is preparing to replicate the success achieved and consolidated by the most fierce competition.
Five-minute videos already on some TikTok accounts
It is not an indiscretion that the possible extension to five minutes of the maximum duration of the videos that can be uploaded to TikTok. The possibility emerges from the tests that the app has started on a small number of users, to whom the maximum limit for videos has already been extended to 5 minutes.
If the test on a few users were to give the desired results, then the TikTok management would be called to seriously consider the idea of extending the new limit to everyone. The current limit is three minutes, already a lot compared to the minute that the social allowed at the beginning. Yet in December last year, the company promoted the extension to three times the maximum limit, while if the five-minute test were to meet expectations and be kept in place it would be just under double the new threshold set not even a year ago.
Those who are part of the current test receive a notification from the social informing them that they can upload and share videos up to five minutes long. It goes something like this, “Share longer videos: upload videos up to five minutes long from your device. Make sure you’re using the latest version of TikTok before testing the new feature on your app or tiktok.com.”
Testing even 10-minute videos and Stories
Some report being able to upload content much longer than the five minutes mentioned in the notification: you’d even be able to share videos up to ten minutes long, which means the social would still be undecided about where to put the new “wall” to duration. But it is likely at this point that in the coming weeks or months an extension to the duration of the videos will arrive, either to 5 or 10 minutes.
On the mechanism of the Stories on TikTok instead there is little to explain: it is known to anyone who frequents the most popular social, with content that remains visible for 24 hours before disappearing. TikTok has confirmed that this feature is also in testing, but there’s still no expected release date.