Everybody's favorite six-second video platform is back and it's got a new name: Byte. Let's take a look and see if the resurrected Vine is any better than its predecessor.
Vine came onto the scene in January 2013 as a child-company of popular social media platform Twitter. Almost immediately, Vine changed the way people created, shared, and enjoyed videos.
Unfortunately, Twitter axed Vine in early 2017, just shy of its fourth birthday. The internet wept.
Seven years after its original inception and a little over three years after Twitter killed Vine, Vine rises from the ashes as Byte.
dear friends,
-- byte (@byte_app) January 25, 2020
today we're bringing back 6-second looping videos and a new community for people who love them.
it's called byte and it's both familiar and new. we hope it'll resonate with people who feel something's been missing. https://t.co/g5qOIdM8qG
No longer associated with Twitter, Byte relaunched with the help of one of Vine's founders, Dom Hofmann. Byte aims to bring back six-second looping videos to social media.
The Experience
If you used Vine in the past, you won't have any trouble adjusting to Byte. You can use the Byte app to watch videos -- which we assume will be called "bytes" -- or to make your own.
Exploring content is done in a few different ways. The home feed collates a collection of content from your favorite creators. The search page allows you to perform keyword searches, view suggested bytes, or search by category. The categories include topics such as music, animation, comedy, sports, and more.
Making bytes is easy as well. You can upload videos and images from your camera roll, or you can use the Byte camera to capture clips. It's got a convenient onion skinning feature to allow you to line up the previous shot. After it looks perfect, you can upload your video to Byte, where it will be publicly available. You can check out all your bytes on your Byte profile.
The overall content is... fine. Adequate. Creators are still constrained to the six-second time limit, which means the formula can be hit-or-miss depending on the creators. Thankfully, there's already quite a bit of content to watch on Byte, and there are some very talented people making great content. If you liked Vine, we'd imagine that you'd also like Byte.
Will Byte be successful?
The question remains: will Byte be successful in a post-Vine world? Anything is possible, and a quick trip to Twitter shows that people are excited to see six-second videos return to their phones.
Less than 24 hours since launch and #Byte is already App the Day, #2 social networking app and Apple's favorite app. pic.twitter.com/IACXcBOuVc
-- Rus (@rus) January 25, 2020
Byte has also announced that they'll be offering creators compensation via their partnership program, which should help to keep users on the platform.
very soon, we'll introduce a pilot version of our partner program which we will use to pay creators. byte celebrates creativity and community, and compensating creators is one important way we can support both. stay tuned for more info.
-- byte (@byte_app) January 25, 2020
Vine fell apart because creators fled when larger marketing companies abandoned Vine for less-restrictive platforms like Instagram Video and Snapchat. Offering to work directly with creators could be a big step in the right direction for Byte.