Watch out YouTube! TikTok is testing a horizontal full-screen feature

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TikTok is now testing a new feature , which allows some users to switch the way they watch their chosen videos to full-screen horizontal viewing. This offers a change from the usual vertical video scrolling typically seen on TikTok.

Combined with another recent change to allow longer videos of up to ten minutes, this seems like an attempt by TikTok to attract users and creators from YouTube.

More formats to promote content
With longer videos available, creators and marketers can now create useful, longer-form videos—like organize your finances with mint how-to videos and tutorials, product walkthroughs, and more—without feeling rushed or running out of time.

This means a new full-screen landscape view is added to the mix, and marketers can fit even more into their videos at a wider angle, without worrying about their audience not being able to see it all.

Although it's still important to keep in mind that anything you want your audience to really focus on should be fully visible in vertical display.

You also need to grab attention in the vertical view before any viewer clicks to switch to the full-screen landscape. You don't want to leave behind any users who would rather stick with the original view.

It's easy to switch from the original vertical view to the new horizontal full-screen view with the click of a button. This offers a clear benefit to users who can now see their videos in greater detail with a wider view.

However, since TikTok built its audience by only offering vertical video scrolling, the question is what will current TikTok users make of the new feature? Will TikTok find during its testing phase that users prefer to stick with the original viewing they’ve come to expect from the platform?

Opportunity for brands?
Another interesting point to note with the new full-screen display is that currently, creators and sellers have to create videos in two different formats if they want to upload them to both TikTok and YouTube.

What's not clear is whether creators can now simply use the same format for both platforms. If they can, that could be a game-changer for marketers, as it would allow for much faster content creation and uploading across both platforms, without the extra step of creating two formats.

Marketers will no doubt welcome the opportunity to create content more quickly and reach two platforms without the extra effort. Whether that is actually the case, however, remains to be seen.

Looking at the bigger picture of social media, it's clear that every social platform is keeping a close eye on the competition. When one innovates, another follows, and soon many platforms have a new, similar feature.

You can see this in Instagram’s introduction of Candid Stories to challenge BeReal and in its use of Reels to keep up with TikTok.

YouTube has its own version of TikTok-like quick videos, with the introduction of Shorts. And what's on Instagram today is likely to be on Facebook tomorrow, provided the tests are successful.

TikTok also seems to be taking a turn on YouTube with these longer videos and the new viewing feature, just as they have already done on BeReal, with their introduction of TikTok Now.

Some questions remain
I could really go on with more examples, but obvious questions arise from all of this: if all social media platforms continue to integrate resources that were previously created by competitors, will we still be able to distinguish between platforms? Will there still be a clear and obvious benefit to using one platform over another, or will there just be one clear overall winner?

Either way, one thing is certain: TikTok’s future is currently bright and it certainly seems to be one to watch right now for new features and innovations.

It’s still too early to say whether TikTok will keep the new horizontal full-screen feature and roll it out to everyone on its platform. And so far, there’s been no mention of whether creators can upload videos to both YouTube and TikTok using just one video format. So for marketers, at least for now, it’s a waiting game.

However, given how many people use TikTok and get a lot of use out of features like search and an Instagram-like photo mode, specialists need to keep a close eye on this platform and where it is headed.

Add in TikTok stores and other developments and this platform could really become more and more the place to be and be seen.

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