TikTok begins testing videos in landscape format

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(Pocket-lint) – Selected users around the world have been included in a landscape video support test on TikTok.

The Chinese social media giant has been steadily moving forward lately, and while other platforms are quick to emulate its fully vertical collaborative format, TikTok is doing the opposite.

This latest development comes after the extension of the maximum length of its videos to 10 minutes, against 3 minutes previously.

If support for horizontal video becomes widespread, the platform will be in direct competition with YouTube, which has been vying for TikTok territory with its vertical and fast-paced YouTube Shorts.

Paul Triolo, technology expert at consultancy Albright Stonebridge Group, told the BBC: “The aim here seems to be to appeal to a more mature audience, the type of those who use YouTube for informative videos and learning, where a full-screen mode would be more desirable.”

For us, that certainly makes sense, however, when it comes to the younger generation, TikTok has it all figured out already.

It is already the most popular app among young people in the world, having been downloaded almost four billion times.

But all is not rosy for the platform. TikTok has come under intense scrutiny in the European Union and the United States, due to data privacy concerns.

In the meantime, the app continues to thrive, but it looks like you might be holding your phone horizontally in the near future.

Written by Luke Baker.