Twitter now allows up to 140-second video

A few days after adding the live streaming option to its features, microblogging site Twitter will now allow its users to post longer videos of up to 140 seconds. Twitter users could previously post videos of up to 30 seconds.

"Video is becoming increasingly central to the real-time conversations happening on Twitter," Jeremy Rishel, Twitter Inc vice-president of engineering said in a blog post.

Twitter users can also shoot longer videos on Vine - Twitter's video streaming service - as the 140-second rules also apply there. Vine previously had a 6-second limit on its videos.

The move highlights how Twitter is leaving no stone unturned to compete with Facebook, Snapchat, or even YouTube in the video section.

Video tweets on Twitter have gone up by over 50% since the beginning of 2016, Twitter said in a blog post.

The social network has announced a slew of new measures:

1) Vine will reportedly use the amplify option of the microblogging site to run ads before any video.

2) For influencers (users with a large number of followers), Twitter has also launched the "Twitter Engage" service. These influencers can track their followers, their activities and reach their tweets, videos, pictures using this mobile app.