I spent a lot of time watching YouTube on my TV, so you’ll be able to think about my shock when app researcher Nima Owji shared an early look at X’s upcoming TV app: It appears to be like nearly precisely like YouTube.
In a current video, Owji reveals off the brand new X TV login display screen, which instructs you to go to a particular URL to hyperlink your TV and X account utilizing a one-time code. After linking your X account, the app proceeds to take you to a house display screen with several types of video content material, together with “Shorts,” which we think about stands for brief movies, the identical factor they’re known as on YouTube; a For You feed of movies; and trending movies.
As well as, the X TV app, which is web-based, has a search operate, identifiable by the magnifying glass on the left vertical menu (paying homage to YouTube’s search operate on TVs). You too can observe particular accounts, corresponding to SpaceX, and activate notifications for his or her content material.
Owji tried out the X app on his smart TV over the weekend and stated it gave the impression to be nearly prepared. The app researcher stated that in his testing, many of the functionalities appeared to work. Like within the X cell and desktop app, you’ll be capable to toggle a video’s pace and picture high quality.
Some outstanding Musk followers, corresponding to DogeDesigner (@cb_doge), identified that primarily based on Owji’s findings, it seemed like X was contemplating reviving Vine, the legendary 6-second looping video app that the Web appears to get pleasure from mourning. Nonetheless, the preview Owji shared doesn’t clearly point out how lengthy the movies within the Shorts feed are.
Owji instructed Gizmodo that the movies on this part have been longer than 6 seconds in his take a look at however didn’t rule out a chance that Vine-like movies might make a return when the X TV app formally launches.
The Elon Musk-led firm purportedly deliberate to launch the app in mid-March, based on a report in Fortune, though Musk isn’t precisely identified for his punctuality. The Fortune report said that Musk deliberate to launch an X TV app for Amazon and Samsung sensible TVs, additionally noting that the app seemed “an identical” to YouTube.
At present, it’s not identified when or if X will launch the X TV app. Musk has indicated that it’s “coming soon.”
Launching a TV app for the social media platform, previously often called Twitter, isn’t new. As Fortune factors out, Twitter beforehand tried to pivot to video at the least three different occasions in recent times, debuting apps for the now-dead Google TV platform and Samsung Sensible Hub in 2010 and 2011. In 2016, the corporate launched video apps for Apple TV, Amazon Hearth TV, and Xbox One after clinching a $10 million deal to stream some NFL video games on Twitter.
