X now lets people cut a short moment out of someone else’s video and post it without leaving the app. Every clip carries a label that leads back to the original, and both the clipper and the original creator can earn from it.
The feature is in the iPhone and Android apps now, with the website to follow. Only recorded videos of two minutes or more can be clipped, and live broadcasts are left out for the time being.
Making one takes a few taps: press Repost on the video, choose Clip video, drag the trimmer’s handles over the moment, tap Next, write a comment and post. X’s Creators account announced it on 9 November.
A clip lasts between 5 and 60 seconds, and it may cover no more than 30% of the video it comes from. From a two-minute video that works out to 36 seconds at most, and the full minute opens up once a video passes 3 minutes 20 seconds. The app shows an alert when a selection crosses the 30% line.
For viewers, a clip plays in the timeline like any other video, with a “Clip from” label on it. Tapping the label opens the original at the second the clip begins, so they can carry on watching from there, and a timestamp shows where the clip sits inside the full video.
Payment goes through Original Content Rewards, and only to accounts enrolled in that programme. Engagement on a clip adds to the clipper’s earnings like any of their posts. The creator of the original is paid for clips of it on the same basis as for embedded reposts of their content, and both amounts arrive with the programme’s regular payouts. Clips do not count toward X’s Video Kickstart Bonus, since the video in them belongs to someone else.
Anyone running the latest version of the app can make clips. When Clip video is missing from the Repost menu, the video is live or shorter than two minutes, or the app needs an update.
Creators have no way to switch clipping off for their videos yet, though X says that option is being built. Deleting the original video removes every clip made from it.
