Sharing Vines Is Easier But May Be Too Little Too Late

by Mary C. Long

Ever since Instagram came out with the ability to share videos in an OBVIOUS attempt to sabotage and bring down Vine, there has been a battle between the two social media platforms. Vine looked pretty promising for a while there, and Twitter was even losing users to Vine. Even now - every day Vine gains new users and the number of people using and sharing videos continues to rapidly increase. 

But Vine currently has just over 40 million users compared to the 200 million on Instagram. That comes as no surprise seeing how Instagram videos can be up to 15 seconds compared to the short 6 second videos on Vine, and Instagram allows users to share photo and video (and very simply), something that Vine does not.

With the population on the video sharing app on the rise though, Vine recently implemented some new features that are said to make using the social media application easier - and they do!

If you haven’t updated the apps on your iPhone in the past couple of weeks, or you have but just didn’t pay very much attention to (or care) what the updates were, you may not have noticed the new features. If not, I’ll sum up!

With the new update you can:

Customize and control notifications and view unread Vine Messages and activities from your iPhone’s home screen. 

Choose whether you want your 6-second video to be public or sent privately right after you create it. 

Navigate through the app easier with a brand new navigation bar at the bottom of the app, which is at the bottom of the app and you can switch between tabs with one tap. (Now when you are scrolling through your Vine feed the top bar fades away.) 

Use language support in new languages including Arabic, English and Hebrew (and Farsi, for Android)

These new features are welcome additions, but it’s likely too little too late, with many potential users already firmly invested in the much more robust and sharing-friendly Instagram. 

But what do YOU think? Are you #TeamVine or #TeamInstagram? 

This article originally appeared on Examiner.com.