Robolox announces TikTok-like shortform video app, AI tools for creators

On Friday, Roblox announced it would be launching a new social video app, plus new AI tools for Roblox creators.

The popular online game platform shared these announcements at its Roblox Developers Conference.

Roblox gaming clips and other short-form brainrot videos often go viral on vertical video platforms like TikTok and Reels. But, over on TikTok, they still have to compete with dancing videos, political talking heads, and viral AI slop.

Enter: Roblox Moments, a TikTok-like short-form video feed for Roblox players to watch and share in-game moments.

Roblox's announcements, especially its new social features, will likely come under scrutiny. Last month, Roblox endured a wave of headlines regarding lawsuits against the company regarding its allegedly lackadaisical child safety features.

Roblox Moments 

The app, which is launching in beta for users 13 years and older, will act much like TikTok's feed, allowing users to scroll through viral Roblox gameplay moments. Users will be able to clip and edit their own moments, up to 30 seconds long, and share them to their own feeds for users to view.

In Roblox's own press release for Roblox Moments, the company quotes a YouTube announcement from last month regarding how Roblox-related content has garnered "over 1 trillion video views" on the Google-owned video platform.

Clearly, Roblox itself wants a piece of that action and is launching its own video platform for gamers to post gameplay videos on.

Along with editing and trimming their gameplay clips, users will be able to add music and a text description to their videos, much like they can do on TikTok and YouTube Shorts.

Furthermore, Roblox appears to have creators in mind as well, as Roblox Moments will also serve as a platform for users to share their own Roblox games. According to Roblox, viewers will be able to "join" experiences they view on Roblox Moments directly from the video that they are watching.

Also, being that this is a developer conference, Roblox announced that it planned to release APIs for Roblox Moments, which would allow third-party developers to integrate new ways to capture, upload, and discover moments within Roblox games.

AI tools for creators

Roblox Moments wasn't the only big announcement at the conference. New AI tools for creators will also soon make their way to Roblox.

For example, creators will be able to enter a prompt regarding a specific vehicle or weapon they want their in-game character to use. Roblox's AI tool will then generate an interactive car based on the prompt, which their character can drive around in the virtual world. These functional creations are a significant upgrade from the static 3D objects that creators were generating in-game already

Roblox is also rolling out a new real-time AI-powered voice chat translation tool, allowing English, Spanish, French, and German-speaking users to more easily interact and socialize.

In addition, the company announced other AI-powered tools, like new text-to-speech and speech-to-text APIs for creators. The text-to-speech API will allow creators to integrate AI-powered voice narration and in-game character dialogue with at least 10 voice presets to start with. The speech-to-text API will allow users to control their characters in-game with vocal commands.