- Elon Musk’s X is introducing a dedicated video tab for users in the US.
- The new feature comes amid the turmoil surrounding the ban on rival platform TikTok.
- TikTok briefly ceased its US operations on Saturday night before resuming on Sunday.
X, formerly Twitter, debuted a new feature for its US users on Sunday — a tab dedicated to watching videos on the platform.
“The Video Tab has arrived. LFG,” X CEO Linda Yaccarino wrote in a post on the platform on Sunday night.
According to X’s promotional video for the feature, the new tab is located between the dedicated Grok button and notification panel. Grok is an AI chatbot developed by X owner Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI.
an immersive new home for videos is rolling out to users in the US today
— X (@X) January 20, 2025
To be sure, the app has experimented with video content for years, though this tab marks an intentional shift toward displaying it more prominently. The platform first rolled out its TikTok-like “immersive media viewer” in September 2022, before Musk acquired it.
“X’s updated immersive media viewer expands videos to full screen with a single click, allowing you to easily access the full, immersive viewing experience,” the company wrote in a blog post at the time.
“Once the video has been launched in full screen mode, we’ve made video discovery easier as well. Just scroll up to start browsing more engaging video content,” the blog post added.
X’s new feature comes amid the turmoil surrounding the ban on TikTok.
According to a law passed by the Senate in April, TikTok had to cease its US operations on January 19 unless it divested itself from its Chinese-based owner, ByteDance. TikTok briefly went dark for US users on Saturday night, before restoring services on Sunday.
The resumption of service came after President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that he plans to issue an executive order to delay the enforcement of the TikTok ban.
“We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive,” TikTok said in a statement to Business Insider.
X did not respond to a request for comment from BI.
Musk’s X isn’t the only social media company that’s making moves while TikTok navigates its regulatory hurdles.
On Sunday, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced a new video editing app called Edits. The app is set to be released on March 13, per its listing on Apple’s App Store.
The announcement comes a day just after Apple had removed CapCut, a video editing app made by ByteDance.
Mosseri said in a Threads posts on Sunday that Edits is like “CapCut, but more for creators than casual video makers.”
“Not just video editing, but an inspiration tab, idea tracking, and insights built in,” Mosseri wrote in his Threads post.
“It’s been months and I think it’ll end up pretty different than CapCut,” Mosseri added.
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