TikTok testing horizontal full-screen mode

(Representational Image: Solen Feyissa via Unsplash)

TikTok has confirmed testing a new horizontal full-screen mode with select users globally.

The Chinese social media giant confirmed the test to TechCrunch, saying that the test was currently limited to a select number of users, who have been given a new full-screen button on square or rectangle videos on the platform.

This brings the social media platform more in line with Google's YouTube. The defining characteristic of TikTok has been the short, portrait-style videos but it has slowly started encroaching on YouTube territory with the last few tests.

In March this year, TikTok increased the length of the videos that can be uploaded on the platform, raising it to 10 minutes. TikTok started with 15-second videos when it first launched. Then the limit was increased to 60 seconds.

The move will be seen by TikTok creators as a welcome addition. Currently, creators still have to add a message to their videos, telling the viewer to flip the phone to the side, if they filmed their content in landscape.

As per a previous TechCrunch report, kids and teens have spent more time on TikTok than on YouTube since June 2020.