X is Testing a Dedicated Video Tab in the Lower Function Bar of the App

X is looking to reinforce its new “video-first platform” approach, with a new media tab incoming, that will make it easier to discover the latest video content in the app.

As you can see in this example, shared by X News Daily, X is working on a new video tab that’ll be located in the middle icon in the lower function bar of the app.

Which is currently taken up by Grok, its sassy AI chatbot. I don’t know whether that suggests that Grok isn’t catching on with users, but either way, it would be safe to assume that a video tab will see more usage, especially if X can get its recommendation algorithm right.

Previous insights from Twitter showed that tweets with video generate 10x more engagement than non video posts, while X also recently shared that 80% of user sessions now include video consumption, with over 100 million people consuming full-screen vertical video in the app every day.

That would suggest that a bigger focus on video is the logical approach to boost user engagement, and it’ll be interesting to see exactly how X might look to use the new tab to keep users glued to the app.

Presumably, X will look to prioritize its new slate of original content, in order to get more people watching, which would also act as a signal to other video creators as to how they can generate reach in the app.

And definitely, discovery is a problem that needs to be addressed.

For example, X also recently reported it’s currently hosting around 80k Spaces chats in the app every day.

That’s a lot of live chats, yet actually finding them, in real time, is challenging, because there’s no central linkage to Spaces or video live streams. But then again, previous Twitter management did add a Spaces tab at one stage, and not enough users cared. It also tried the same with Moments, with similar results.

Maybe, then a dedicated tab is not the solution discovery after all, but I do think it could be different with video, and I would also expect real-time video live streams to be another element of this display.

And based on the above insights, it could go a long way towards maximizing in app engagement.

Details are limited as yet, but this seems like a smarter way to drive more engagement, while also pushing its video-first approach.  

And if people are engaging with video at the rates that X says, and it’s looking to sell more video ads, it needs to make a change in how it highlights the best video content in the app.