Twitter has improved Video Quality. No more pixelated Indie Game GIFs or Videos!

Introduction

Have you ever been puzzled why your Twitter GIFs/Videos looked… quite blurry? It seemed not to matter how much you modified your file. It just came out looking... pixelated. In my experience, a handful appeared sharp and crisp, but it was primarily due to the game's art style. For instance, games with a brighter and less noisy background appeared to maintain a higher level of quality. However, there was a reason why the majority of your videos appeared to be hazy. Twitter has historically placed a low premium on video quality. On Sep 24, 2021, Twitter released a series of improvements aimed at improving video quality. What you need to know is as follows:

Contents

1. Older Videos

2. Twitter Media Best Practices

3. Enable High-Quality Videos

4. Conclusion

1. Older Videos

Do not be concerned if older videos do not appear to be as sharp. According to Twitter, these enhancements will take effect for new video submissions beginning Sep 24, 2021. I took a thorough look at several older/new footage and can certainly tell the difference.

2. Twitter Media Best Practices

Twitter has devoted an entire page to recommending media best practices. I'll summarize the pertinent details below:

Gif Recommendations:

"Resolution should be <= 1280x1080 (width x height)

Number of frames <= 350

Number of pixels (width * height * num_frames) <= 300 million

File size <= 15Mb"

Video Recommendations:

"Video Codec: H264 High Profile

Frame Rates: 30 FPS, 60 FPS

Video Resolution: 1280x720 (landscape), 720x1280 (portrait), 720x720 (square)

Minimum Video Bitrate: 5,000 kbps

Minimum Audio Bitrate: 128 kbps

Audio Codec: AAC LC

Aspect Ratio: 16:9 (landscape or portrait), 1:1 (square)"

3. Enable High-quality videos on your Smartphone

If you're constantly on the go and rely on your Smartphone to share/view the content for your indie game, ensure the following features are enabled:

Go to:

Settings and privacy

Data usage Video

High-quality video

Choose from Mobile data & Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi only.

There is a possibility that it was set to "Never." The entire post is available here.

4. Conclusion

While this is wonderful news, it is still critical to optimize your videos and GIFs. I'll create a blog post explaining how to accomplish this later on. However, for the time being, I hope this information has been beneficial. What are you waiting for, then? It's time to upload your new indie game videos!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below or drop me a tweet.

IndieGameJoe
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