Twitter is making photos and videos look more ‘immersive’ in a new test

Your media tweets will soon span the width of the timeline.

What you need to know

• Twitter has unveiled a new test that makes its timeline look more immersive.
• The test expands photos, GIFs, and videos across the full width of the timeline.
• Edge-to-edge tweets are currently available to a limited number of iOS users.

Twitter is testing a new experience that gives more focus on photos, GIFs, and videos in the timeline. Media tweets now appear edge-to-edge in the new test, just like Instagram’s display format.

The experimental design offers a more immersive way of viewing photos and videos. Twitter says it’s part of an effort to improve how it displays text-based and media tweets on the platform.

We’re continuing our work to improve how you view Tweets and all forms of media on Twitter.

Today we’re starting to test a more immersive timeline in which photos, videos, and Tweets with text spanning the width of your screen leaving no margin.

Twitter’s edge-to-edge design removes the margins on both sides of a photo or video. This means your tweet will stretch across the full width of the timeline, making it look more immersive.

Currently, photos and videos are flanked by empty spaces inside the tweet box. To get a full-width view of the material, you’ll need to tap on it. The latest experiment makes use of the vacant space by giving media tweets more room in the timeline.

The current test is Twitter’s latest attempt to alter how it displays media in the timeline. In May, it rolled out a larger view of images to better represent their content without the need for cropping.

For now, the new test is rolling out to a limited group of Twitter users on iOS. You can see it in action in the tweet below:

Now testing on iOS:

Edge to edge Tweets that span the width of the timeline so your photos, GIFs, and videos can have more room to shine. pic.twitter.com/luAHoPjjlY

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) September 7, 2021

The microblogging platform did not say when or if it intends to make the new experience widely available. However, users are already complaining about the change, despite the fact that it is still in its early stages.

That said, the edge-to-edge timeline is expected to reach more users beyond the iOS realm if the test proves encouraging. There’s no word, though, on when full-width tweets will arrive on some of the best Android phones.