Twitter’s Native Video Player To Arrive “Next Year”

Twitter, not content with its domination of the world’s 140-character updates, is building a video player. The social media site, which has 284 million unique users each month, will unveil a native video platform, which tweeters “can expect to see this in the first half of next year.”

That quote comes from a Twitter blog post, which discussed the planned video player as well as several other upcoming developments. “Aside from just watching video more easily on Twitter, you should be able to record, edit and share your own videos natively on Twitter too,” reads the post. “Alongside short looping Vine videos, we think you’ll have fun sharing what’s happening in your world through native video.”

Twitter has mulled its own video player for at least two years. Since many video posts on the site run through third-party sites like Telly

, Twitter misses out on any potential ad revenue. At the same time, when those third-party sites run bad, Twitter has to deal with users who think Telly is its own native video player.

The launch of Vine in 2013 has helped solve these problems, at least to some degree. Since Twitter owns Vine, it controls a platform through which it can direct video traffic while also keeping that traffic within its grasp. But Vine, with its six-second limit, is an inflexible platform, and Twitter’s native platform will likely support videos of all shapes and sizes.

Facebook has recently shown how native video players on social media sites can be a powerful resource. Now, Twitter is hoping to follow suit.