Skip to main content

Instagram has video? Well Vine has a big update too!

Vine App Icon
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Facebook has officially revealed its big announcement: Video for Instagram. While reports first suspected that Facebook was unveiling a RSS reader, speculation is mounting that the coffee has to do with a Vine-like addition to Instagram. 

Before this morning’s event, Twitter started preemptively fighting back. Vine is (appropriately) using Vine to tease new features and updates to the app. The videos were published by co-founder Dom Hofmann and Rus Yusupov’s Vine accounts, as first reported by AllThingsD.

You can watch the Vines in action below, but since the frame rate of the images flicker by so quickly, we’ve broken down the Vines frame-by-frame. You’re welcome.

Here’s what Vine showed off and has in store.

What we’re looking at here are polished mock-ups of the brand spankin’ new design. Vine videos will be stretched and fill up the entire screen on mobile (removing most of the white space) which we suspect is a move to put the content front and center.

vine new design wireframe
Image used with permission by copyright holder

And from the looks of it, text comments will float above the media (video in this case) itself, like what Twitter and Facebook have done already.

vine new design mock up
Image used with permission by copyright holder

This looks like the new design of the recording feature.

vine new recording design
Image used with permission by copyright holder

We’re not exactly sure what this image is about, but Cult of Mac suggests that Vine is going to throw in the ability to record multiple Vines at once, and save drafts.

vine number six
Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you look at the top of the page in the right-hand corner, you’ll spot a Vine record button. And considering the creative uses for Vine, we’re guessing that Vine is going to roll out categories that users can choose from. If this is the case, it’s a big deal for Vine and its users. It would put Vine closer to a six-second version of YouTube.

vine categories
Image used with permission by copyright holder

We suspect that this is how the Vine video drafts will look inside of the app. Either that or it’s an in-app editing feature. 

vine video drafts
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Finally, this last Vine by co-founder Dom Hofmann is a bit of  a mystery. If you string this together, like we attempted to below, we could see how it might be relevant to messaging. The blue and red strips may be messages sans Vine videos, while the text that look like it’s superimposed on a video, are messages that hover over the Vine video replies. 

We have absolutely no idea if this is correctly pieced together, but from our guess you’ll be able to send each other text messages that can be displayed on top of Vine videos. 

vine messaging feature
Image used with permission by copyright holder

As for these buttons, we’re assuming – granted that Vine adds messaging – the check mark indicates the the Vine (or message) has been sent. The video button may or may not be self explanatory but we’re going to go with saying that it’s the button to record a Vine.

vine buttons
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Editors' Recommendations

Francis Bea
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Francis got his first taste of the tech industry in a failed attempt at a startup during his time as a student at the…
Instagram has new parental controls to help moderate use for teens
Closeup of the Instagram app icon.

Amid eight recently filed lawsuits that claim its platforms have been harmful to its teenage users, Meta has just announced the addition of more parental controls and digital well-being features for its popular photo and video sharing app, Instagram.

On Tuesday, Meta announced a series of "new tools and resources" for teens and their parents to help better regulate the former's consumption of content on Instagram. It's worth noting here that Instagram is one of the platforms included in the lawsuits against Meta.

Read more
Call me a phony, but anti-Instagram app BeReal is too real for me
BeReal app icon on an iPhone 13 Pro.

The prospect of Twitter, my preferred social network of choice, dramatically changing in the near future prompted me to idly look at other options, and one that instantly caught my attention was BeReal. The app’s hook is its authenticity. By pushing you to post a photo in a random two-minute window, it promises to deliver an uncut, unfiltered view of your everyday life -- essentially, it's the anti-Instagram.

I went to it with the hope I would make real connections with genuine people, free from the fakery and careful curation of other social networks. Unfortunately, I came away missing the supposedly fake worlds I left behind because the BeReal didn't capture the real me at all.
Two minutes per day to be real
Here’s how BeReal works: The app sends a notification at a random time once each day telling you it’s time to BeReal, by which it means it's time to post a photo showing what you’re doing at that exact moment. You must use the app’s camera feature, which has no editing features and definitely no filters. When you tap the shutter button, it takes a photo with the rear and the front camera at the same time. The photo posted primarily shows the rear view, with your face in a small picture-in-picture view in the top corner.

Read more
Meta confirms Instagram outage issues, working on update
Closeup of the Instagram app icon.

If you opened the Instagram app recently and saw some technical issues, you're not alone. Instagram is experiencing some service issues and appears to be down right now.

On Thursday afternoon, on sites like Downdetector and Twitter, Instagram users began reporting difficulties with logging in, getting logged out, posts not loading, and other problems with accessing and using the popular photo-sharing app. Some users have even reported seeing a "Welcome to Instagram" message.

Read more