Vine is adding several new features to counter Instagram

Jul 4, 2013 19:41 GMT  ·  By

The jury is still out on whether Instagram adding video was a big blow to Vine or not and whether Twitter's video service still has the power to grow, maybe to even challenge Instagram at one point, even though the two products aren't complete rivals.

But one thing is for sure, Vine is not giving up without a fight. Just as Instagram was about to unveil its new video feature, Vine showcased some of the upcoming features that weren't ready yet but on which the team was working. Now, Vine is making some of those features available to all in the latest update for iOS.

"We've redesigned the camera and included new grid, focus, and ghost tools to make shooting great videos even easier," Vine explained.

"We’re introducing 15 channels for you to submit posts to or browse from the Explore screen, including comedy, music and nature — each with their own theme and Popular feed. They’re a great way to highlight the awesome posts that are shared every day," it added.

"Discover new people who are starting to capture the attention and interest of the Vine community," it said.

One interesting feature new to Vine is private posts. Vine is using the same system as Twitter, i.e. there's no granular privacy.

Instead, users can switch from a fully public feed, i.e. everything they share is public and viewable by anyone, and a protected feed in which only approved followers can see the videos. The exact same options are available on Twitter.

Another small but crucial addition is "revining," which, as you might have guessed, is the ability to repost a Vine video you liked. Reblogging has been crucial to Tumblr's success. Instagram too offers a similar option. Revining should prove a sure way of improving engagement in the app. These new features are part of the iOS app for now, but they're coming to Android as well.