Twitter Tests Variable Playback Speeds for Audio and Video Content in the App

Twitter has launched a new test, on Android and the web, which will enable users to control the playback speed of both video and voice tweets in the app.

As you can see here, the new playback speed options will provide a range of different settings to choose from, so you can customize your viewing experience. You can chipmunk voices in audio clips, providing more ways to consume content faster, or you can slow things down to get a better look at certain elements.

Twitter’s been working on its payback speed options for the last few months, with reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong first spotting them in testing back in September.

Today’s announcement marks the first live test, and while it isn’t available on iOS for now, it seems likely that Twitter will look to expand the functionality soon,

Many users have been calling for variable speed options on all apps, with this also coming up as a suggestion in a recent survey we conducted on possible Facebook additions. With attention spans shrinking, and short video increasingly becoming the preferred means of communication, more people are looking to get through longer videos faster, while having the capacity to slow things down can help when you’re looking to assess specific details and elements within viral clips.

Or if you like, you can just leave things as they are, and keep your video playback at normal speed. It’s a handy addition to have either way, and it’s a good update for Twitter’s video playback.

Next, then, will be to also improve Twitter’s overall video quality, which, given its recent work to upgrade still image quality to 4K could also be coming soon.

We’ll keep you updated on any progress.