Elon Musk really wants X to compete with YouTube. Musk personally intervened to encourage MrBeast, YouTube’s biggest star, to start posting full videos on the platform formerly known as Twitter. Earlier this year, X CEO Linda Yaccarino claimed that X was becoming a “video first” platform.
Now, X is taking another step in its moving image pivot: A dedicated smart TV app just for viewing videos posted on the platform.
“Beta version of X TV is out,” Musk posted on X on Monday night.
X TV: Musk’s pivot to video
The first public release of the X app for TV is now available — and users can install it via the smart TV versions of Google Play, Amazon’s app store, and LG’s app store. The X TV app has not yet been released for Apple TV nor the Apple App Store for tvOS.
According to the X TV app details, users will be able to browse video uploaded to X, as well as access livestream video on the platform. Users must sign in to their X account to use the TV app.
Previously, the only way to watch X’s video content on television was to cast videos through a secondary device like an iPhone or Android smartphone.
Elon Musk wants X to be a lot of things. From a social media service to a banking app, Musk and company have been persistent in its goal to make the platform formerly known as Twitter, an “everything” app.
Unlike financial services, X users do currently post videos, so X TV isn’t too far off from what the main platform does. However, it seems like most users watch videos on X in passing, as they scroll through their feed. So, it will certainly be interesting to see if the X TV app successfully changes or just confirms current user behavior.
