Twitter has unveiled its new native video feature today, along with group direct messages.

Up until now, users of the social platform have only been able to create and share videos through the external Twitter-owned app Vine.

The new video support will allow people to edit, share, and play videos right from the Twitter iPhone app itself. Videos can also be up to 30 seconds long, double the length of Instagram videos.

In a blog post announcing the new features, Twitter said: “In just a few taps you can add a video to unfolding conversations, share your perspective of a live event, and show your everyday moments instantly, without ever having to leave the app.”

This year’s Oscars host, Neil Patrick Harris, was the first to use the new tool to promote the upcoming Academy Awards.

The San Francisco-based company also revealed that private group messages have been made available.

“You might prefer to read (or watch) Tweets but converse about them privately. You might want to continue a public conversation privately with a smaller group, or start on based on a Tweet you saw,” Twitter said in a blog post.

One of the most notable benefits of this feature is that users will be able to start a conversation with multiple followers at once, even if some of the users don’t follow each other.

The new messaging option allows Twitter to up its game in the communications world with the likes of Facebook and its WhatsApp messaging app.

The news follows Twitter’s announcement last week that it would be buying mobile marketing business ZipDial, its first acquisition in India.