Twitter’s Vine video-sharing service released a new feature that allows you to send video and text messages to other people on Vine. Previously, the only option was for sharing Vine’s six-second videos with the public.
The new option underscores the push by social companies to emphasize more personal, one-to-one or one-to-few forms of communication, in response to the rising popularity of apps like Snapchat and WhatsApp.
Facebook’s Instagram Direct launched in December. It allows users to send private messages on the photo-sharing service. So far, there’s little evidence that shows Instagram Direct is enjoying any success. Since the message activity is private, only Facebook knows those statistics, and it hasn’t released any. (I do know that I haven’t received or sent any private Instagrams since Direct’s initial launch.)
Vine’s push into direct messaging might see greater pickup, as the app enables you to send videos to anyone in your address book, even if they aren’t on Vine.
With the addition of Vine messaging, now Facebook and Twitter both have multiple direct-messaging channels. Twitter has its text-message-like direct messages, or DMs, a feature that it continues to experiment with, while Facebook recently acquired texting app WhatsApp, alongside Instagram Direct and its flagship Facebook Messenger.
Traditional social networks like Facebook and Twitter have to compete with the growing market of messaging applications that are becoming increasingly popular as alternatives to social media, especially among young people.
Lead image via Vine
