There’s nothing I love more than kicking back at the end of a long day and watching an hours-long video on *checks notes* Twitter?
That’s apparently what Elon Musk is hoping I do, because the Chief Twit took to the social media platform today to announce that Twitter Blue subscribers (that are also verified) are now able to upload videos up to two hours long.
Musk did add a note that the two-hour-long video can only be up to 8GB in size. I’m no video producer, but I know the amount of compression creators are going to have to apply in order to stuff a two-hour-long video into that 8GB limit is going to be challenging.
Most creators are now shooting in at least 4K (unless you’re Marques Brownlee and going for the gold), and doing some simple math, Twitter would require a creator to reduce the resolution to AT LEAST 1080p in order to fit a 2-hour video into the 8GB limit. Even Musk himself laughed at the poor resolution of the company’s live-streaming technology earlier this month.
Of course, most creators are unlikely to need to upload a feature-length film to the social media platform, and plenty will get by with that limit. Twitter can also learn from creators about their needs and continue to expand the infrastructure to support it.
This does set up an interesting scenario for creators looking to post longer content to the platform. And, not to get too into the weeds, but Tucker Carlson is expected to start hosting a new show on Twitter within a month. That certainly sounds like a show that would need something like this.
Ultimately, Musk seems keen to try and attract YouTubers to the platform. While Twitter is still far away from having the features, discoverability, and reach of YouTube, this could be one more step to building out the infrastructure to make it a viable competitor.
One thing is for sure — long-form YouTube currently has no competition. The company is so dominant that it’s even starting to take over cable TV by acquiring the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket. We could all benefit from some competition here.
