Substack has enabled video publishing directly from within the Substack app. The move is designed to increase user engagement while helping its authors monetize, including with smartphones. Each video post can be formatted to reach subscribers instantly through email, app notifications, or both. “With millions of weekly active users and 1 million posts discovered daily, the Substack app has become the leading driver of subscriber and revenue growth for publishers building sustainable, independent businesses,” the company claims. The Substack network has also become a discovery ecosystem, helping creators find potential subscribers.

“As TikTok’s future in the U.S. remains uncertain, Substack tries to lure creators to its platform by doubling down on video,” writes TechCrunch, pointing out that while Substack previously let creators share videos through a function called Notes, a “Twitter-like feed,” Notes lacked paywall support, which is crucial to the monetization strategy.

“Currently, creators can only paywall entire video posts published in the app,” TechCrunch notes, previewing how “in the future, Substack plans to enable creators to show specific portions of the video to free subscribers as a teaser.”

Since subscribers aren’t alerted when Notes are posted, video publication has the added advantage of notifications. Following video publication, creators can track post views, gathering analytics on datapoints like new subscribers and estimated revenue growth.

“There’s going to be a world of people who are much more focused on videos. That is a huge world that Substack is only starting to penetrate,” Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie told CNBC, which showcases a veteran YouTuber who is leaving that platform to focus on Substack, where she earned nearly $200,000 in one year — more than from years of posting videos on YouTube.

“San Francisco-based Substack launched in 2017 as a tool for newsletter writers to charge readers a monthly fee to read their content,” explains CNBC, which says the platform has differentiated itself by allowing creators to connect to their followers “directly without having to navigate algorithmic models that control when their content is shown, as is the case on TikTok, Google’s YouTube and other social platforms.”

“This is just the first iteration of in-app video publishing,” according to a post on the new features (including a helpful video for publishing in the app). “We’re already exploring features that will make video on Substack even more powerful, including trimming and editing tools, free preview options, enhanced analytics, and improved playback controls. We’re committed to making it easier for creators to share their work in whatever format they choose.”