While most social media platforms are optimizing for mobile, Vine’s gone the other way by launching a web version of its service.
Previously, Vine was a mobile-only app and there was no way to view the Vine profiles (and collected videos) of individual users on a web browser (unless they were embedded.) Now, much like Instagram, Vine has created complete web profiles for all its users, and launched the ability to play back Vine videos in full-screen mode.
Users can log in to their Vine web profiles at vine.co where they can view and comment on Vines showing up in their home feed. Plus, in a move designed to encourage binge watching, users can click on “TV mode” in the upper right corner of a profile to view all the videos the user has uploaded in sequence.
Vine profiles now exist outside of the mobile app.
This is particularly great for Vine users looking to create videos around a theme, or tell stories in a sequence. It’s also a convenient way for brands to have people access all their Vine content in one go on the web. For example, on Halloween, Oreo released several very creative horror-movie themed Vine’s but the only way to see them all in one place was to find somebody who had taken the time crawl through Oreo’s Twitter feed and embedded the videos on a single page. TV Mode would be the perfect way to center videos around a theme and have users consume it in one go, as well view individual videos. Plus, users can now share links to their profiles on the web so that they can be viewed outside of the mobile app.
The new features are also designed to encourage users who are “Vine artists,” i.e the comedians, animators and cinematographers who have turned the 6-second looping video into a creative calling. With TV mode, they will now be encouraged to create a large body of work so that people consume it on their profile, rather than waiting for the videos to be shared out on other social networks. With the new web presence, Vine is following Instagram by making the move from a content-creation service for Twitter, to a full fledged social media network of its own.
