Vine app

By Morgan Lewis
STAFF WRITER

If Instagram and YouTube came together and had a beautiful child, then you would have Vine. Twitter’s new mobile social video application, Vine, enables its users to create and post short video clips that run up to six seconds. Although it is relatively new, it is quickly becoming one of the most popular forms of social networking.

According to the Twitter Help Center website Vine lets its users create and share short looping videos. Videos posted to Vine will appear on your Vine profile and the timelines of your Vine followers. You can also share your video posts to Twitter or Facebook.

The app is similar to Snapchat, and it shows you a scrollable feed of all your friends’ vines on the homescreen. You also have your own profile page, which you can customize later after signing up. Vine takes most of your information from Twitter, including name, photo, bio and transfers it to your new Vine account when you sign up.

To record a video, you must first hit the video icon in the top right corner to enter the record mode. You can then record video by touching your finger to the screen. Removing your finger from the screen pauses the recording. The video is not complete until six full seconds have been recorded.

Vine has made some remarkable strides. Less than three months after its debut, Twitter’s Vine reached the top of the iTunes free app chart in early April. There are some limitations with the new video sharing app. Vine can only be accessed on iPhone or iPad products, but the application for Android will be launched in a few weeks.

Even with the nearly instant success of Vine, it still went under some scrutiny. Many early users used the application for pornographic clips, one of which made it onto the “Editors Picks” feature. In the backlash of its scrutiny, the creators raised the required age to download the application from 12 to 17.

While there has been praise for Vine, there are still a few drawbacks that could be fixed in the update. Other than choosing what to shoot and for how long, you cannot edit the footage or save it to your camera roll as a draft. There’s no front-facing camera option, and the app often crashes.

Even with it’ flaws, Vine has caught the eye of some powerful members. In a story done on an ABC news blog, President Obama premiered on the video sharing network. The White House featured Obama at the annual science fair that is hosted on the lawn.

Vine has already established itself as the leader in social video. With Twitter’s backing and continual promotion, Vine is clearly an app for brands to keep an eye on. The simplicity of Vine is perfect to encourage consumers to adopt the app, but time will tell if the application will become the next big thing or just another flavor of the month in social media.