Review: Vine
Score:
75%
Vine was launched in January 2013 by Twitter, and since then it has racked up users, videos, infamy, and a few third-party Windows Phone clients. Vine's official client for Microsoft's mobile platform arrived in November, has had a few updates, and now Ewan asks if the app is ready to record your six seconds of a close-up.
Version Reviewed: 1.1.0.0
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As with many of the smaller social media sites, Vine was released first on iOS (the aforementioned January 2013 launch), and on Android at a later date (June 2013). Although a version for Windows Phone was demonstrated at Microsoft's Build 2013 (July 2013) and at Nokia World 2013, the application didn't reach the Windows Phone handsets until November 2013. It's been a long road, and much of the initial enthusiasm around Vine has withered. But the service is still popular, with well over 40 million users before the Windows Phone client was released. That's a big audience, and now Windows Phone users can join in.
In the same way that Instagram allows you to share photos, Vine allows you to share videos. These videos are available to watch in a timeline on your smartphone, and can also be viewed online. Friends and followers can leave comments on your videos, mark their favourites, and share them on their own timeline.
The twist with Vine is the length of the video. A number of companies have attempted to make video services work in the same way as threaded conversations. Vine's 'eureka' moment was to limit the length of the video around time. Just six seconds per video, and that would be your lot (in practice you have six and a half seconds so you have a slightly smoother finish to each video). That restriction not only made the bandwidth and experience consistent for everyone, but it also forces people to be creative and think carefully about what they upload - which improves the quality.
Helping that creativity is the ability to pause your recordings. You can shoot for one burst of three seconds, stop halfway through and move around a bit and film the rest of your time, or you could go stop motion all the way for 150 frames (at 25 fps) of animation (and a LOT of people do that).
Given that Vine is owned by Twitter (they actually bought the company before Vine was launched publicly), the network looks and acts a lot like Twitter, so there is a familiarity both to the user interface and how things work when you are using the Windows Phone client.
As a new Vine user, you'll also see a lot of familiar faces if you sign in with Twitter, as your Twittter friends who are also on Vine will be added to your friends list. It's a nice touch that gives you something to look at straight away, and it also helped Vine build up a valid ecosystem in a short amount of time.
It's still a bit creepy having your friends waiting for you, though...
In use, Vine is pretty straightforward. Navigating the timelines and your own profile can be done through the four tabs at the top of the screen - the home screen with the timeline of your friends, the activity screen which shows how people are interacting with your Vine videos, an exploration tab that allows you look through Vine by popularity or through curated channels, and finally details of your activity and personal profile. All rather standard stuff and works as expected. The only issue I have is the horrible shade of green that is used in the app, all pastel and wishy-washy, with a touch of yellow. It just... nope, doesn't work for me.
Recording videos are just as easy - hit the camera icon and you'll be taken to the camera part of the app. Some quick functions are available at the bottom of the screen, so you can switch between the front and rear cameras if available; overlay a grid for composition help, ghost the last frame on the screen to help with stop motion or frame cuts, and look at draft Vine videos not yet uploaded. To actually record your video, just touch the screen and hold your finger down for however long you want to record the video.
Once you've done that, you'll get a screen to add in the title, text, and metadata (and also toggle switches to share the video on Vine, Twitter, and Facebook). Get yourself into some decent 3G, 4G, or Wi-Fi coverage, upload, and you're done. The whole workflow around Vine is pretty simple, and the application does not get in the way with any unnecessary complications. It does the job as advertised, because Vine is not the place for bells and whistles, it's about getting those six seconds recorded and uploaded and online as quickly as possible.
This isn't the first client for Vine on Windows Phone - the bete noir of third-party social media clients, Rudy Huyn, has a Vine application, but there is very little need for the application as the major features of the Vine application have made it over from other platforms, Where you have issues (such as trying to upload pre-existing videos) then it is the format of Vine itself and the security models of Windows Phone that are getting in the way. It's hard to blame the application for following the default app behaviour model. While indie third-party apps can cut corners, there's a sense that the big boys need to play fair.
And make no mistake, Vine is one of the big boys. While it might not be as popular (numerically) as Twitter and Facebook, people who take the time to create and curate video enjoy Vine and the artistic freedom that the limitations of six seconds gives you. The name recognition factor is very high, and the simple fact of having Vine as an official app inside the story will give more credibility to Windows Phone as a platform.
Is Vine for me? Far from it (I'm an audio kinda guy), but I am very glad that the app is here, that it works well, and that Windows Phone has another strong social network available on the handset.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at