Amazon has announced that it will let you easily share videos showing up to 30 seconds of its Prime Video content, right from the iPhone app. The feature will only be available for a very limited number of shows initially, but allowing users to share videos from shows is a very different approach than other streaming providers are taking.
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According to Amazon’s press release, the video sharing feature will be available on iOS. When you’re watching a show, a Share Clip button will appear alongside your other controls. Tapping it will create a 30-second video clip, which you can then fine-tune to make sure it contains the part of the show you’re trying to share. From there, you can share it using Apple’s built-in sharing feature, send it to a friend via iMessage, or post it to social media.
When asked if the feature will be available on Android, an Amazon spokesperson told The Verge that sharing short videos is currently only available to iPhone users with version 8.41 (or later) of the Prime Video app.
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It seems like an obvious feature that any streaming service could add — people really like sharing videos of the shows they’re watching, and it’s basically free marketing for that show. However, Amazon’s competitors, like Hulu and Netflix, are moving in the exact opposite direction: when you take a screenshot while watching one of their shows, the video content simply ends with a black screen, leaving you with only the subtitles if you have them enabled.
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While this is an understandable tactic for third-party content (Netflix's download feature also has some limitations on what shows you can download), for original shows made by the streaming services themselves, it seems like a missed opportunity to let people do their own marketing.
Amazon says you can only share clips from The Wilds, Invincible, Fairfax, and the first season of The Boys, but it will add more movies and shows later. It's unclear if we'll end up getting this feature for any non-Amazon content on Prime Video in the future.
Source of information: theverge.com
