Vine, the video-sharing app that plays looping six-second videos, has updated their app in an attempt to help users make even more entertaining videos to share with the world. If you love watching Vines, get ready to see the quality of Vines improve tremendously.
Vine now allows editing of video created outside of app
In an update that will surely have a many users screaming “finally!”, you can now use foootage filmed outside of the Vine app in your videos. If you use Vine, or any other app that requires the use of photo or film shot in-app, you’ll understand how huge of a convenience this new feature will be. Before, all video footage that was shot using your phone’s native camera app was out of reach for editing into Vines. Because many people tend to reach for their phone’s native camera app to shoot video rather than an app like Vine or Instagram, users were leaving a lot of awesome footage unshared. This frustrating scenario is now a thing of the past; that video that has been waiting to be used for two years can finally see the light of day.
Other new tools added to create better, more interesting Vines
If the newly announced video imports aren’t enough for you, breathe easy. Wired also reports that other new features include “focus-lock feature for the front-facing camera, editing features like a duplicating button…a mute button to wipe out audio, and a ‘torch’ mode, which turns on your phone’s flash so you can shoot in the dark.” With these new additions, it seems that Vine is focusing in on allowing users to create video with as high of quality as possible – a smart (and let’s be real: required) move for any audio-visual app.
Improvements to make 100 million viewers happy
Vine announced that there are now more than 100 million people viewing Vines every month. What’s more, Forbes reports that there are more than 1 billion loops of Vines played every single day. With so many views, it’s obvious that Vine is looking to keep current users and viewers happy, while luring in people who previously hadn’t been sold on the program.
The new features of the app serve two purposes: to appease the frustration of users who had video they wanted to share but couldn’t, and to allow more Vines to be created in hopes of further boosting viewership. Some critics of the new upload feature feel that the beauty of the app was that it forced users to be creative in order to meet the limitations of the software. This complaint, while entirely valid, ignores the potential for more creativity with the ability to include video from other sources. We think that, unless Vine abandons the six-second video limit, we’ll continue to see really creative videos.
Do you use Vine? What do you think of the new additions to the app?