‘You can upload nearly a whole movie’: TikToks are about to get a whole lot longer

The app known for short-form content has just released an update allowing users to upload extra long videos.

That’s right, you can expect to see a lot more long-form content on TikTok now, as users can upload longer videos provided they’re on the most up to date version of the app. Up until recently the longest a video on TikTok could be was 10 minutes, and this is already a huge leap from where they started out back when the app was shiny and new to the U.S. and videos could only be 15 seconds long.

What is the longest TikTok you can upload?

As of right now, users are able to upload videos up to 60 minutes in length — but will people be able to pay attention for a whole 60 minutes? That remains to be seen, but regardless, the option is there.

Reactions to the update have been mixed; on the one hand, people have been calling for an option to upload longer videos for a while now. On the other hand, we have TikTok users like Ben Esherick, who doubt it’s such a good idea.

Ben has a point: “Y’all are not YouTube” indeed — YouTube’s player is more geared towards longer content, and it’s hard to imagine an hour long video being as convenient and easy to watch on an app like TikTok. Many of the comments echoed the sentiment by taking some lighthearted jabs at the idea.

Imma start posting paint drying ong get ready

i can finally watch movies on tt without waiting for part 58

is this tiktok’s way of trying to bring back our attention spans?

Of course, all jokes aside, maybe 60 minute videos could be a good thing, as the comments point out, maybe reversing the damage short form content has done to our collective attention spans. It could also mean less of those annoying two-three-four part videos, (although I somehow doubt it). Personally, if I’m going to watch a long video essay or something of the sort, I’d rather do so on a laptop and on YouTube. But then again, I’m old — maybe Gen Z are fine with watching something for an hour on their phone.

Either way, nobody’s forcing anyone to watch 60 minute long videos on TikTok — you can always skip if you prefer shorter content, but the options there if you fancy something that’s more movie-length. Honestly though, short videos, long videos, at the moment we’re just lucky we can watch any videos on TikTok regardless of their length, so let’s just take some time to appreciate the app while we still have it.