James R | On 04, Mar 2015

Twitter has enabled the embedding of videos posted on the social network.

It might not sound like a big step, but it’s a crucial move in the ongoing race between Facebook and Twitter to rival YouTube. The video site’s growth has been fuelled by video sharing and embedding. While Facebook allows the embedding of its videos on other sites, the whole Facebook post is automatically attached. Twitter’s widget, on the other hand, allows you to embed the video without including the original tweet.

Video embeds are available for videos captured and uploaded through Twitter’s applications for iOS and Android, as well as Twitter Amplify partners. To embed a video, just click on the “•••” button and select “Embed Video” to obtain the HTML code. The full, original Tweet will then only be displayed when a viewer selects the Twitter logo included in the post.

Twitter still has a way to go, though, to establish itself as a contender in the social video stakes: its six-second platform, Vine, now records more than 1.5 billion loops a day, Twitter revealed in its latest quarterly statement, but Facebook is currently recording 3 billion views a day. While Facebook’s is no doubt helped by its autoplay feature within users’ timelines, though, Twitter is notably placing an emphasis on off-site reach. Will it be enough to make a difference? Read our in-depth piece on the battle between YouTube and its new contenders.

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