Twitter rolling out group direct messages and native video sharing

Twitter announced last November that it had a number of new features on its roadmap for this year, and today the social network says two of those features are starting to roll out to users. Starting this week Twitter will start allowing users to capture and share videos right from the camera in the mobile app, and direct messages will soon support group chatting for the first time. Here’s how the new video and group direct message features work:

Direct messages are of course private messages to other users on Twitter as opposed to public tweets that anyone can see, and before now, these could only been sent between two people. Twitter introduced native tweet sharing over direct messages last fall, and now it’s rolling out group direct messaging.

While 1-to-1 direct messages typically require each user to follow one another to carry on a conversation, that limitation will be less strict with group direct messages. Twitter says you can begin a group direct message with any of your followers, and they won’t be required to follow each other to participate. Group direct messages will support up to 20 users at launch.

http://youtu.be/XNnVH-mwSdM

As for Twitter’s new native video features, you can see screenshots of how the feature will appear above. Twitter is adding video capturing features right into the camera of its official apps with editing capabilities included. Videos will be allowed to be up to 30 seconds in length, and iPhone users will be able to also select from pre-recorded videos you capture outside of the Twitter app for sharing natively on your timeline. Editing features include the ability to make cuts and arrange your content.

http://youtu.be/qtFJf1N3zWw

Twitter says users should see the new group direct message and native video sharing features roll out starting today to Twitter for iPhone. The latest feature roll out follows last week’s introduction of Twitter’s ‘while you were away’ feature, also announced last fall, showing popular content you might have missed.