Twitter continues to make much-anticipated changes to its apps, announcing Tuesday that users can now send group messages and share native videos.
With direct group messaging, users can now talk to multiple people at once in groups of up to 20, which gives them a chance to have more private conversations on the micro-blogging website, according to The Verge. The second new feature lets users capture, edit and post videos lasting 30 seconds.
The update will be available in several days for Twitter's iOS and Android apps and is the company's latest move in getting people to spend more time on its website.
The group messaging option also lets users have conversations with people that don't follow each other, Mashable reported.
The need for private group conversations has been discussed among top Twitter executives for months, with CEO Dick Costolo saying in an earnings call last April that the option would give users the chance to move "more fluidly between the public conversation that happens everywhere on Twitter and the private conversations between you and a friend or you and a few friends."
Native video sharing, which Twitter first teased at an analyst event in November, is sure to help Twitter compete with rivals like Facebook, Tumblr and Flipboard looking to use the feature for video advertising, Mashable reported.
"We believe that during any sort of social event, national event, global event, the opportunity for people, participants, to be live tweeting those things and broadcasting them to the world is massive opportunity," Costolo said at the analyst event. "That's one of the reasons we are so excited about consumer video."
Twitter has more updates planned in the future aimed at increasing user engagement, including the addition of breaking news alerts and more standalone apps.
