So What Exactly Is Vine?

You have probably heard everyone talking about Vine, Twitter’s “amazing” new app. The app has arrived on iOS, and you may have even downloaded it—but you’re probably wondering, “What exactly is it?” Alex Hern at NewsStatesman.com has all the answers:

Vine is an app—currently only for iOS—that records six seconds of video and posts it on an endless loop to your Twitter account. If you are familiar with the animated gif, this is very similar. The videos automatically start playing, are muted by default, endlessly loop and must be between three and six seconds long. “You aren’t going to be making movies with these, or even any sort of narrative video clip at all—it’s purely for sharing “moments”,” Hern said.

There are limitations, however. Hern said, “Vine offers no option for editing after you’ve recorded, nor does it let you import videos taken or downloaded elsewhere.”

So how does Vine work with Twitter? You can sign up with your Twitter account and share every post to Twitter by default. It’s also possible to use the service without Twitter at all. One can sign up with an e-mail address and then not export any video from Vine.

So what do you think of Vine? Will you be signing up?