Remember Vine? It’s much-awaited successor, Byte, is finally here. The app, developed by one of the Vine’s co-founders, Dom Hofmann, who has been working on the app for years, quietly announced the release on Twitter last night.
In 2018, Hofmann had announced he’s going to release the app in Spring 2019. While he certainly missed that target, the app is finally here. Byte is available for both iOS and Android, but not for all countries. The app retains the idea of creating six-second looping videos. But it has a TikTok-styled vertically scrolling timeline for endless consumption.
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Byte has a curated discovery section where you’ll see six-second videos handpicked by editors. It also has multiple categories such as comedy, animation, art, pets, and sports for you to easily find videos that interest you.
[Read: TikTok surpasses 1.5 billion downloads — with almost 500M in India]
At the moment, the app lacks audio mixing, transition effects, and AR (Augmented Reality filters) — things that have made TikTok and other similar platforms immensely popular.
However, in an interview with TechCrunch, Hofmann said Byte is trying to do something different by singing up creators for a pilot program and let them earn money through shared revenue:
We’re looking at all of those (features), but we’ll be starting with a revenue share + supplementing with our own funds. We’ll have more details about exactly how the pilot program will work soon.
you know the drill: upload from your camera roll or use the byte camera to capture stuff. there are lots of ways to find new personalities and moments. explore what the community is watching and loving, view posts handpicked by our editors, or browse on your own.
— byte (@byte_app) January 25, 2020
After Vine shutdown in 2016, TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms have filled the short video consumption market quite brilliantly. While Hofmann and Byte have nostalgic values behind them to fuel the initial download surge, they will have to make sure the platform offers something unique for creators and audiences alike for them to stick around.
