Twitter New Features: The Social Networking Giant Starts Testing Autoplay Video Ads In iPad And iPhone Apps As It Tries To Take On Rivals Facebook And YouTube!

Looks like Twitter is following Facebook's footsteps as the social media company will begin testing autoplay video ads, a lot like the feature Facebook introduced on its website back in 2013.

Twitter on Monday, March 23 joined the ranks of Facebook and Instagram as the social networking giant will begin testing autoplay video ads.

According to a report from Ad Age, Twitter is looking to check if users are more likely to watch a video ad if it queues up and plays automatically. Ad Age further noted that some people in the United States who use Twitter's iPhone and iPad apps may note videos playing in their feed despite the fact they never pressed play.

As opposed to to the current model that requires users to click to play as in YouTube, Twitter is conducting this test to see if people are more subject to watch a video when its starts playing automatically just like it does on Facebook.

In an email statement, a Twitter spokesman said that the social networking giant is running a small test on a few variations on the video playback experience.

While some will see full-length videos play in their newsfeeds, others will get a six-second preview loop. That said, the video won't play with sound until the users click on it to view full screen, Engadget noted.

As far as the ad content is concerned, an unnamed source claims that test videos will be selected from Twitter's Promoted Video ads such as pre-roll footage from big-name advertisers. Furthermore videos posted on Vine app (Twitter's 6-second video blogging app) will not be featured.

Judging by its latest move, it looks like Twitter is looking to replicate Facebook's success in advertisement. AppleInsider noted that Facebook logs over three billion video view per day. A large part of Facebook's results have been associated with autoplay videos, as users are more likely to engage with content that they don't need to press the play button on.

Autoplay seems to be an easy way for companies to get viewer's attention simply because if a video starts playing automatically, then users are already watching it. However, if it doesn't autoplay, there are chances that users might need to invest time reading what the video is all about before actually playing it and in that time; they might decide they don't want to watch it after all.

In addition, autoplay can boost an important metric for companies i.e. view numbers, for which companies try to coax celebs, publishers and brands to post videos to their properties.

Do you think the autoplay feature will encourage users to watch a video they would not watch otherwise? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!