Vine Tries Out 140-Second Videos

Vine is moving beyond 6-second videos.

The Twitter-owned video-sharing app just announced a new beta feature that lets you post videos up to 140 seconds. Vine has been working with a group of creators on the feature, and will begin to "slowly" open it up to more people, starting this week. If you're interested in being part of the beta, sign up here for access.

In a blog post announcing the change, the company said that "short form is the ethos of Vine," but many users have said they want more time.

"With this beta release, a Vine can now be a trailer that points directly to a mini-movie," the Vine team wrote.

When you browse through your feed, you'll still see the 6-second videos you're used to. But now, you'll start to see a "Watch more" button in the lower right corner of certain Vines; click that to view the longer attached video.

Those with access to the beta will also no longer be constrained to a small box.

"The canvas for movies is not only longer, it's fullscreen," the Vine team wrote. "Shoot vertical or horizontal, and rotate your phone to watch in widescreen. Show your love for the best parts of the movie by double tapping to make hearts fly."

Vine has made an effort to create "Vine stars" to rival those who got their start on YouTube, but while a number of Vines have gone viral, six seconds is not a lot of time to make a connection with an audience.

The change comes less than two months after Vine rival Instagram upped its video limit from 15 seconds to a full minute.

Meanwhile on the social media front, Twitter today released a new app called Engage, which "provides real-time data and insights, allowing you to quickly understand, engage, and grow your audiences." The app surfaces your "most important follows and @mentions from influencers and loyal fans," and lets you easily track "post-by-post performance." At this point, the app is only available for iOS in the US.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.