Bring Back the Magic of 6 Second Looped Vine Video With Byte
Back in 2016, Twitter called for the shutdown of Vine, an acquired video service that specializes in creating 6-second looping videos. Now, almost four years later, one of the Vine co-authors has released an app that brings back those videos: Byte .
The app, now available for Android and iOS, is broadly what Vine was: a way to create 6-second looping videos and a platform to share them with the world.
To use the app, you need to create an account first, which can be done right now by logging in with Google. You will then be able to download and share your own bytes, as well as view those posted by others.
Unlike the Vines, which were square, the bytes are shot in portrait mode on your smartphone and take up most of the screen, giving you a little more room to work with.
To shoot, simply press and hold the circular shutter button at the bottom middle of the screen to record. You can stop recording whenever you want, or video recording will automatically stop after 6 seconds.
If you need a little inspiration, clicking on the search icon will bring up videos that other users have shared on Byte. In particular, some of the frame movements are pretty fantastic.
Publishing videos right now outside of the app is a little awkward. I sent one stop animation to a friend and the app had to encode it first before it could send it via Facebook Messenger. When it was posted; however, he posted a downloaded version of the video so my friend could see it without downloading Byte itself. This is enjoyable for the person watching the video, and a bit disturbing as a content creator who might not want my work to be downloaded and distributed around town without my knowledge. So be careful.
That said, if you’ve missed Vine for the past few years, it’s definitely an interesting app to play with.