Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is preparing to launch a streaming video app for smart TVs. Though still in development, with no formal launch date announced, X CEO Linda Yaccarino posted a “sneak peek” that indicates the app will have a “trending” algorithm that pushes popular content and will be AI-powered to deliver a “personalized experience.” Yaccarino said the X video app will also have “effortless casting” so content can be easily sent to a larger screen from a mobile device. Availability is billed as “coming soon to most smart TVs.”

Enhanced video search is also mentioned in Yaccarino’s post, which invites users to “share your ideas.”

With the addition of a TV app, the X social platform is “pushing deeper into video and entertainment content as it takes on the likes of Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube,” reports Bloomberg.

Bloomberg cites casting video to TV screens using the app as a move that Google and Amazon “have also made in recent months to allow use of their own operating systems to be more compatible with sharing video content to other devices.”

Since his September 2022 purchase of Twitter, later renamed X, Musk has touted video and his intent to build on it, and last month began teasing the TV app.

“As part of that video push, X announced several high-profile partnerships earlier this year to get more professionally produced video onto the service,” including one for an exclusive interview show with former CNN host Don Lemon, a deal that “fell apart after Lemon interviewed Musk on camera,” Bloomberg writes.

The upcoming X TV app launch is part of an effort by Yaccarino, former NBCUniversal head of advertising, “to turn the social media site into a free-speech ‘video first’ platform,” explains TechCrunch, adding that “the social network currently features an original show hosted by former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and another by former FOX Sports host Jim Rome.”

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