X to launch its own Smart TV app

Source: X

Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, is to launch a smart TV app.

The move puts the social media platform closer into competition with video streaming app providers such as YouTube or even Netflix. However, while X confirmed plans for an X TV app on the platform, it did not provide further details, such as which televisions or streaming devices would be supported, where the service would be available or what would be on it.

“In the last month, people on X have spent a lot of time watching video – to the tune of 385 million hours! That’s 1.4 trillion seconds, 23 billion minutes, or 16 million days’ worth of video. Let’s watch what happens when you can stream the world in real-time on X TV!” @XData tweeted.

News of X’s latest plans to launch an app was first reported by Fortune last month, with a source telling the title that the the company planned to launch something very similar to YouTube’s app for Amazon devices and Samsung Smart TVs.

X has in fact launched video streaming and smart TV apps previously, including for Samsung devices, with these being discontinued after a while.

The company has recently emphasized video as key to its future development, with a claim in January that the social media outfit is now a “video-first platform” with people watching video in eight out of 10 user sessions, and the introduction of an ‘immersive video’ feature with a claimed 100 million daily users.

X has also enabled long-form video uploads of over 30 minutes on the platform.