Apps like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram offer never-ending short-form video content that can keep you helplessly hooked for hours. It’s just what you expect when you open those apps. What you might not expect, however, is to find that type of content when you open the Uber Eats app. But here we are.
The company revealed its new short-form video enterprise in an interview with TechCrunch. You’ll encounter this TikTok-style content when you first open Uber Eats, as well as throughout the entire app. It sounds like it’ll work similarly to Instagram, where a full vertical player will open up, allowing you to swipe through different videos.
Unlike any of the aforementioned apps, however, this content isn’t simply uploaded and delivered via an algorithm tailor-made to each user. Instead, Uber Eats is hosting videos directly from restaurants themselves, showcasing whatever food or service they want to. In addition, Uber Eats will only show you videos from restaurants in your immediate vicinity. It’s not clear exactly how close you need to be to a restaurant to receive a video, but I imagine if it’s something you’d likely order Uber Eats for, you’ll see their videos.
Uber Eats wants to be clear that these videos are not ads, as the company is not charging restaurants for the privilege. On the restaurant’s end, it’ll likely feel like the free experience of uploading a video to TikTok or Instagram.
Look, this story originally made me laugh because, come on—even Uber Eats is doing short-form video now? But I kind of like the approach here: It’s unique to see only videos from restaurants that are close to you, so you can get a better idea of where you want to order from. I already swipe through images of restaurants on Google Maps before deciding whether or not to try them out, so why not add a video demonstration to the mix?
Of course, those of us that know what we want and just want to get to our order might find these videos intrusive. I’m not sure if you can turn off these videos, but my initial guess is no. You can’t turn off videos in other apps, so I doubt Uber Eats is going to offer a toggle for that, either.
