Los Angeles — Brevity is the soul of Twitter, and the 140 character micro-blogging outfit has kept it alive in its video-tweeting service. On Thursday, Twitter unveiled Vine, a New York startup that the company acquired last October, an addition to the social network that allows users to embed six second videos for iPhone and iPod Touch that lets anyone create and share short looping videos within their tweets.
The micro-blogging site had been mum on its plans for Vine since its acquisition, until the service was used first by Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, whw last night posted a clip of himself making steak tartare using the Vine app.
Vine and Twitter subsequently confirmed the launch of the Vine, an app that allows users to create six second long animated GIF-like video loops, never launched on its own, but finally hit the iOS App Store under Twitter’s wing. Unlike an Instagram picture, Vine videos are happy bedfellows with Twitter cards — you can view them in the Vine app itself or right in the midst of your Twitter stream.
Twitter boss Dick Costolo posted a video showing an edited sequence of food being prepared…
“Posts on Vine are about abbreviation — the shortened form of something larger,” Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann wrote. “They are little windows into the people, settings, ideas and objects that make up your life. They are quirky, and we think that is part of what makes them so special.”
However, Twitter acquired Vine last fall, but the can be used by anyone regardless of whether they use Twitter. Additionally, the service is clearly meant to be embedded anywhere, and there are plenty of examples of the videos being embedded in tweets.
With Vine, short clips (a maximum of 6 seconds) can be recorded via a straight take or multiple shots, then turned into a shareable digital flipbook. Though there is no play/pause button attached, the looping video can be stopped by clicking on it before it becomes annoying. They are shot using the Vine app, and users can choose to have sound on or off, as can anyone who encounters a Vine video in a tweet or blog post.
“Like Tweets, the brevity of videos on Vine (6 seconds or less) inspires creativity,” Michael Sippey, Twitter’s vice president of product, wrote. “Now that you can easily capture motion and sound, we look forward to seeing what you create.”
Holding hands at Tilden park vine.co/v/biTaEEwdq2n?1
— James Buckhouse (@buckhouse) January 24, 2013
Interestingly, the 6-second limitation on Vine posts comes as no surprise and appears to be Twitter’s new atomic unit for video. A Twitter spokesperson said, “The team tested various video lengths, ranging from about 4 seconds to 10 seconds, as they were building Vine. They found that 6 seconds was the ideal length, from both the production and consumption side.”
Going forward, the minimalist Vine homepage simply provides a link to the Apple App Store, where iOS users can download the free app, which will work on the iPhone and iPod touch.