X launched a new video editor and recorder UI in the iOS version of its app. The updated editor includes a range of new additions, such as multi-language captions and green screen recording.
As shown in this sequence, X’s updated video capture UI’s new features are integrated into an easy-to-use overlay that will provide more options for posting videos to the app.
Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, said that adding new options to the updated player has been a particular focus.
As per Bier: “One of our biggest priorities is to give creators the tools to create original content & reward those creators. We have plenty more updates coming to the video editor in the coming weeks.”
X has been experimenting with ways to make video more of a focal point in the app over the past couple of years. That has included a test of a video tab in the lower function bar and a range of deals on original video content.
In 2024, then-X CEO Linda Yaccarino said X was now a “video first platform,” and added that video views in the app had increased significantly, marking a major shift in user behaviors.
Yet despite Yaccarino’s claim, X hasn’t done a lot to become a video-focused tool. Instead the company seems to have hoped that it could just say this, and that the statement alone would suddenly make it a rival for TikTok.
It hasn’t worked, and X usage is still well behind TikTok and Instagram, and YouTube as well (which was another target that X owner Elon Musk claimed to be taking aim at at one stage).
But maybe with streamlined video posting options, more X users will want to post video content, which could help the platform lean further into this element.
