As X looks to lean more into video content, it is also looking to improve video discovery. This is especially true for live broadcasts, as users who miss a notification that a user they follow is streaming may not be aware that the stream is happening.
To address this, X is experimenting with using Spaces as a way to alert users of live video streams. Spaces are a new feature on X that allow users to host live audio conversations. When a user hosts a Space, it appears at the top of the X timeline for all of their followers.
X is testing the idea of using Spaces to alert users of live video streams in a few different ways. One way is to automatically create a Space for every live video stream that is started. This would allow users to easily find live streams that they are interested in.
Another way that X is testing is to allow users to create Spaces to promote their own live video streams. This would give users more control over how their live streams are promoted.
It is still too early to say whether X’s experiment with Spaces will be successful. However, it is a promising approach to improving video discovery for live broadcasts.
X is experimenting with using Spaces to alert users of live video streams. This is a promising approach to improving video discovery for live broadcasts, but it is only a half measure.
A more radical change would be to add a full-screen video feed as a swipeable tab or even to open the app to a video feed, with users then switching across to their regular post feed. This would be a major improvement for video discovery on X, but it would also require a significant technical investment.
It is unclear whether X has the capacity to make such a change, given that the company has been struggling to keep up with its workload after Elon Musk laid off a significant number of employees.
The X team has repeatedly touted its massive list of innovations and increased update velocity since Musk took over. However, the vast majority of these changes had actually been in development for months or even years before Musk’s arrival.
As a result, X has not actually built many new elements from scratch. It remains to be seen what the X team can do with a much smaller team and a limited budget.
It is possible that repurposing existing elements, such as Spaces, is the best that X can currently do to improve video discovery. However, it is also possible that X will need to make more significant changes in the future if it wants to make video a major part of its platform.
