Twitter has reportedly introduced new image and video editing tools to take on rivals Facebook and Snapchat. The new tools were revealed in tweets made recently by various celebrities, says a report from Gigaom.
More options for users
Whether or not the new tools will debut as a standalone product or be included in Twitter’s existing mobile app is not known for now. It seems like that instead of introducing new apps, Twitter prefers to add new features to its existing app. The micro-blogging firm currently serves as Internet’s live broadcast network, but it also wants people to use its apps more instead of using other social media tools.
Twitter’s new tools appear to allow users to share images modified with text overlays, stickers and in several other ways. The existing tools on Twitter could be used only for cropping images and changing appearance with the help of available filters.
“What’s interesting is that Twitter is still fairly poor at private messaging, and yet other than for celebrities, it feels like a lot of these features would be best suited to stuff you’d share with your friends rather than the world at large,” said Jan Dowson, the chief analyst at Jackdaw Research. Dowson is anxious to know how these new features are positioned by the company.
Twitter targeting Snapchat and Facebook
A similar set of editing tools are already offered by both Facebook and Snapchat, and now Twitter can compete. Twitter’s new features appear to target Snapchat more as this ephemeral messaging service had been offering photo editing tools for the longest. Even Facebook fears its younger competitor, and introduced features like stickers for its Messenger app to fight with SnapChat. Twitter is now joining the party.
Not just Twitter, but Facebook has also been trying to attract more users to its site. Several aspects of the micro-blogging site have been copied by Facebook, but it has not been able to succeed with those efforts, according to Gigaom. Reportedly, Facebook is working on developing a tool to supplant Twitter’s role as a breaking news wire.
The new editing features can be seen as a part of the coordinated efforts from the micro-blogging firm to compete with Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, and other messaging apps. Of note, earlier this month, Twitter removed the 140-character limit on tweets.
