Vine to live on as camera app, existing content to migrate online

Come January, Vine will transition its app to a title called "Vine Camera," Vine said in a blog post. The reconfigured software will still allow users to create six-second looping videos, the format for which Vine is known, but in-app sharing is to be limited to Twitter.

While users can download and save snippets to their phone, it appears Twitter will be the only means of native looping playback. The ubiquitous microblogging network already features integrated backend support for its soon-to-be-defunct video sharing service.

To help smooth the transition, Vine plans to release a "Follow on Twitter" option that lets content creators easily port followers over to Twitter.

As promised, Vine users can now download their Vines through the app or the Vine.co website. For viewers and fans, Twitter plans to host all current and past content on Vine.co as browsable videos, at least for the foreseeable future.

Twitter first announced plans to discontinue Vine in October as part of a restructuring initiative. Subsequent reports claimed the company fielded bids for the service, which in theory would have kept the community intact. It appears those offers fell through.