In exciting social media news, the long-awaited Byte app has officially launched.
A direct successor of Vine, Byte was created by Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann, who’s been working on the app since 2016.
Dom first teased a sequel to Vine after its 2017 shutdown. Despite millions of users and rapid growth, Vine failed due to a lack of moderation and an inability to monetize. Vine-lovers and creators were thrilled at the possibility of a Vine 2.0, but it wasn’t until nearly three years later that Byte was finally released to the public.
On January 25th 2020, Byte went live. The team took to Twitter to announce the launch, writing, “dear friends, today we’re bringing back 6-second looping videos and a new community for people who love them.” They followed up with a series of tweets explaining how to use the app and what users can expect— including a built-in partner program for monetization.
Lesson learned.
At first glance it seems Byte will provide a comparable user experience to Vine, allowing creators to upload videos up to 6-seconds long. Max.
This is an appealing feature for Vine-lovers who felt the 6-second limitation forced creators to think outside of the box, resulting in content that was more creative and unique than what we see on any other platform today. Despite their similarities, TikTok allows for videos up to one minute long.
— cark on byte (@carkinthedark) January 25, 2020
Videos uploaded to Byte play on loop like a Boomerang, and unlike on Instagram or TikTok, there is the option to “re-byte” someone else’s content similar to a retweet.
Follower counts are hidden (though we suspect this will change) and users are able to choose from a variety of background colours to customise their profile.
Though it’s early days and many features are still under development, the response to Byte’s launch has been overwhelmingly positive with many saying they’re ready to jump ship from TikTok to Byte.
We can’t help but wonder— is TikTok’s bubble about to burst?