Since Vine became a public app in January many people have begun to use it to create 6 second video compositions of the world around them. The app has had a few really interesting creations that have been definitely art, advertising, a captured moment or inspired. Unfortunately, the majority of people shoot videos as if their Dad just got a camcorder in the 1980's...it isn't pretty. Lots of shaky videos of kids laughing and animals being cute.
That was fine in the meantime for Vine but on June 20th, the Facebook owned app and photo-sharing social network, Instagram released an update to their app that allows users to create 15 second videos. Nothing spectacular about that until a user begins to investigate the new feature. People that use Vine have become familiar with the idea of the tap-and-hold procedure to capture video and Instagram makes use of this same action. However, after nabbing some video Instagram allows you to see how long the clips are in relation to the entire 15 seconds that are allowed. Plus, you can delete it if the clip didn't come out the way you would have liked. Even this simple editing component makes this microvlogging tool superior on the video side.
At our team meeting yesterday, people were already saying that "Instagram will kill Vine" and that most people knew someone that had already decided to abandon the app altogether. While I'm not willing to go that far yet I do think that Instagram has the edge for a number of reasons:
- The user base of photo-creatives on Instagram dwarfs almost all of the work I've seen on Vine. There are flashes (6 seconds goes by very quickly) of brilliance on Vine while I've spent lots of time just viewing amazing pictures by excellent photographers on Instagram. Already this community is making videos that can express deeper emotional components.
- Commercial viability. At 15 seconds, a great Instagram clip is ready for broadcast on television and other mobile devices that we are all constantly using to connect.
- Imaging. Stop thinking about just photos or video and instead consider that Adobe used to own imaging. Instagram has hijacked the best part of PhotoShop (Filters & Effects) and brought it down to the consumer level where we can all play while also cutting into YouTube's space.
Neither app really does audio very well. Vine probably sounds a little better to me so far but I need to work with it some more to be sure. It also seems as if Vine has a wider field of view, whether that is a benefit or not depends on the situation.
Dig me up on Instagram and see what I've been shooting lately.
