Reddit, the popular content-sharing platform that considers itself to be “the front page of the Internet,” will test out a new feature that will allow users to upload their videos straight to the site without having to turn to a third-party host such as YouTube.

Aside from posts that are text-only, most content on Reddit links to media that is hosted on other websites, which is a bit of a problem when it comes to Reddit’s advertising revenue, since it means users had to leave the site to view most of its content. Last year, Reddit tried to tackle this problem by introducing its own image hosting feature, but so far this has seen mixed results, with many users still opting to host their images on Imgur. Now, Reddit is trying to use the use tactic with video, and the company said its new features will make it easier for users to share their content with the community.

“If you’ve spent any time on r/HighQualityGifs, r/mealtimevideos, or just about any other Reddit community, you know that videos and gifs represent a major proportion of the content shared on our site,” the Reddit team said in a blog post Thursday. “But prior to this launch, content creators had to go through a time-consuming, circuitous process to post videos, using third-party hosting platforms, copying URLs, and sharing them as link posts. This inhibited many users, especially those who capture videos on their phones and want to share them quickly with their favorite subreddits.”

“With native video, we’ve streamlined this process dramatically, allowing both content creators and commenters to focus on the conversation taking place on Reddit. No third-party uploads, new tabs, or back arrows necessary.”

A large, sudden influx of videos could place a major strain on Reddit’s infrastructure, which is why the company says that it is slowly easing into video rather than making the feature available for everyone on all communities at once.

Users can share prerecorded videos, but they can also use the official Reddit app to record and share content directly to the platform. They can also turns their videos into animated gifs, which has become a popular media format on Reddit. Despite its limitations, Reddit’s new video feature may find a niche with users who are only interested in sharing short videos to specific communities, such as users sharing a cute dog video to r/aww.

“These users don’t need to worry about building a huge subscriber base or posting to an abyss of content because they’re posting directly to the communities that share their passion,” the Reddit team explained.

Reddit’s new video feature might be useful for users who want to share their own original content on Reddit only, but it does not seem particularly useful for users who want to share their videos on multiple platforms. The feature would also exclude videos that are not owned by the users interested in sharing them, unless Reddit wants to wade into a copyright minefield.

Image by Antonio Zugaldia (originally posted to Flickr as Reddit) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons