Twitter (X) and Bluesky launch short video feeds amid TikTok uncertainty

TikTok is gradually coming back online after a brief ban in the US, and other popular services have already launched their own alternatives — specifically, Jack Dorsey’s Bluesky and Elon Musk’s Twitter.

Both have announced in the last few hours the launch of new channels with video content, which are intended to provide users with an experience of watching short vertical videos, similar to TikTok. In the Bluesky statement, it is noted that network users, in addition to directly watching short videos, will be able to create targeted channels that receive video content only from certain hashtags (such as the #BookSky channel, which closely resembles the TikTok reader community “BookTok”).

Twitter (X) also began rolling out a new “Video” tab since Sunday — but only for users in the US. The new feed is located on the app navigation panel, next to the Grok chatbot.

By the way, Instagram, which has long had its own TikTok alternative called Reels, decided to take advantage of the temporary blocking of the CapCut app from TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, and launched its own video editing program with similar features.

Let’s recall that since Sunday, January 19, in the US, a bill fully banning TikTok, initiated by the Biden administration, came into effect, emphasizing that the program poses a threat to national security because the Chinese government might force ByteDance, the parent company of the social network, to hand over data on American users. Meanwhile, just a few hours later, the service began to resume operations against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s statement, who declared that he plans to postpone the ban and suggested that the US should receive 50% ownership of the service.