Vine, an app which came to life in 2013 for both Android, iOS initially and Windows phones lets users create and post 6 second videos online, is about to receive an upgrade. Vine who are owned by social media giant Twitter are about to add a new messaging system, the feature “creatively” called Vine messages or VM for short will essentially be a direct message.
This service will allow vine users to send short videos privately to individuals or groups of friends via the app or in an email or MMS, without having to post them online. There is already an app which does essentially the same thing called Snapchat, which has been around for some time and proved incredibly popular. It would appear Vine is hoping to give them a bit of competition.
Twitter said it realised very early on that Vine users needed a way to privately message, and has been working on a solution while also watching the Vine community come up with “clever ways to send videos to their friends”. While Vine users can still be clever if they so desire.
To create a Vine message, select the new Messages option in the navigation menu. From there, record a video or type a message and send it to friends. Users can also send a VM to multiple people, but Vine will start a separate and private conversation with each person.
Users can also tap the Share button under Vine posts and choose Vine message to share a post privately. Friends can then respond directly. The actual Vine messages inbox has two sections for Friends and Other. The latter inbox is for people outside a user’s network. To receive messages only from friends, users can turn off the other inbox under their Settings. Also settings now have options for colour customisation.
Vine is available along with the latest update now from the app store or google play.