It’s only been a few months since Twitter, but the company is already experimenting with a new video format. The company is testing a new “Tweet Take” feature that allows users to share reaction videos alongside a Quote Tweet.
With the test, Twitter users can choose to send a “Quote Tweet with Reaction” instead of the typical Retweet or Quote Tweet. These “Tweet Takes”, as the company calls them, can be a photo or a video, and the original tweet will be embedded as an overtop card.
The concept is similar to a feature in Twitter’s Short-lived Fleets feature, which allowed users to share tweets with their own comments in full-screen format. Fleets, of course, never gained traction and the company withdrew the feature less than a month after its launch.
Tweet reaction videos can now start on Twitter!
Testing on iOS: When you tap the Retweet icon, choose “Quote Tweet with reaction” to create and customize your own Tweet Take –– a reaction video (or photo) with the built-in Tweet. pic.twitter.com/1E30F8rKYh
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) January 6, 2022
Unlike Fleets, these reaction videos will appear in the main timeline like any other tweet, although the videos look visibly different from the typical retweet. (Although users can record a reaction full-screen, it’s not clear in what format they appear on the timeline. We contacted Twitter for more information.)
But these “takes” are perhaps even more similar to TikTok-style reaction videos, which often feature a comment or clip from another user as a source. While Twitter hasn’t necessarily encouraged these types of interactions in the past, the company has been taking steps to create more creator-friendly features, so it’s not necessarily surprising to see this kind of experiment.
Of course, just as Twitter users have raised concerns about whether Fleets could be used to direct people to harassment, personalized reaction videos also seem like the kind of resource that could be ripe for abuse. Quoted Tweets are already a major source of dunking and bullying – which Twitter has sometimes tried – so it’s not hard to imagine that these “Tweet Takes” could also become problematic. It’s also unclear how big the initial experiment will be—Twitter often sees new ideas and features in the early stages, but not all of them make it through the testing phase.
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