X Tests Dedicated Video Tab in Lower Function Bar

X looks to be close to launching a new button along the bottom function bar of the app, with its dedicated, immersive video feed to be directly accessible in one tap.

As you can see in this example, shared by app researcher @p4mui, the bottom function bar on X is set to get a revamp, with a new icon for Grok, its AI chatbot, and a quick link to its full-screen video feed.

Which, given that X keeps touting itself as a “video first platform”, makes sense. Though it’s still not “video first”, in that it won’t open to that feed.

Regardless, the update would put more emphasis on video content, and as X continues to build out its slate of original video programming, that’s slowly becoming a more critical focus for its business planning, in regards to audience retention and ad placement.

Though, then again, X has actually been experimenting with this for some time, with an initial prototype of an updated lower function bar spotted in testing in January last year.

As you can see, at that stage, there was no Grok button, so it kept the lower function options to only five icons. Now, X has expanded that to six, with this new iteration set to replace the “Groups” tab with the video button instead.

Which is also interesting from a UI perspective.

Previous Twitter management were super hesitant to add too many function buttons to this lower panel, for fear of cluttering the user experience. Indeed, back in 2015, when Twitter launched “Moments”, there was much internal debate about whether they should include a Moments tab within this panel.

They did, eventually, add a lightning bolt icon for Moments, but they removed it a year later, replacing it with the “Explore” button instead. It stuck with only five tabs from then on, but X has already added another, which may or may not impact user engagement.

But as noted, if X really wants to make video the focus, it needs to find ways to do exactly that.

You can already tap into X’s full-screen video feed by expanding any video in-stream, then swiping up to go to the next video clip, but that’s not overly intuitive. And with video consumption rising (X says that video views in the app increased 40% year-over-year), it makes sense for X to enable a more direct video viewing option.

If it actually gets released.

Maybe, this time around, X will actually launch this new tab, though it might also be an X Premium exclusive, meaning that hardly anyone will get to use it.

Either way, it’s another indicator of X’s focus on video, which should be factored into your X content planning.