Instagram vs Vine

Instagram has rolled out its
answer to the popular short-format
video app, Vine . With this, the
battle between two popular social
networks, Facebook (acquired
Instagram in April last year ) and
Twitter (acquired Vine in October
last year) intensifies. While Vine is
a standalone app backed by
Twitter, Instagram has introduced
the video recording mode within
the Instagram app. This also
means Instagram’s video sharing
service already has 130 million
users compared to 30 million users
that have been using the Vine
app. Though both video-sharing
apps are more or less the same,
there are several attributes that
differentiate them from each
other. We take a closer look at
Instagram video mode and the
Vine app to know which one is
better.
User Interface
Vine has a simple and straight
forward interface. The recording
screen comes without any bells
and whistles and has been kept
minimal with the camera icon that
lets you switch between rear and
front cameras (iOS only), status bar
and "Finish" button. Instagram
follows suit, with almost a similar
recording screen but also has a
big red record button, an undo
button and the rear/front camera
switching option (iOS only). One
can easily switch back to the
Instagram photo mode from the
shooting mode.
Both Vine for iPhone and
Instagram for iPhone allow
switching between the front and
rear cameras easily even while
shooting. The Vine Android app
doesn’t support front camera at all
while Instagram for Android lets
you either use the front camera or
the rear camera but one cannot
switch between the two. Instagram
also lets you select a screenshot of
the video, which can be posted as
the cover of the video. As
Instagram has picked design cues
from Vine, we think the veteran
short video format service bags all
the brownie points here.
Length
This is one of the key aspects that
differentiate both video sharing
services. Vine lets you shoot quick
six second videos while Instagram
stretches it further by nine
seconds for an overall 15-second
clip. With a mere six seconds, Vine
requires its users to be quick,
accurate and get to the point
instantly. On the other hand,
Facebook has stretched the timing,
allowing users to shoot for a little
longer as they believe six seconds
could be really a small span of
time. The news has it that this
isn’t the only reason why Facebook
chose a 15 second clip. Reportedly,
Facebook plans to introduce video
ads during fall, which are expected
to last for 15 seconds. Clearly, this
will allure video advertisers to
drop their 15 second
advertisements on the video
service too. However, this has a
flip side as users could get really
bored with the additional time. If
a video is boring, then the 9
additional seconds could appear to
be really long.
Twitter has always been the social
site of fewer words, while Facebook
lets you express more. Some folks
say, Vine is the Twitter and
Instagram the Facebook of video
sharing services. Eventually, this
would leave users to choose a
longer or a shorter video format
depending upon what they plan to
shoot and how lengthy the video
needs to be.
Looping
A Vine video follows the looping
format which means it continously
plays the video over and over
again until you interrupt it, which
is apt considering the video is just
six seconds. Vine’s looping feature
is one of its highlights and quite a
hit with comedy and uber-creative
clips. On the other hand,
Instagram video can be viewed
once again with just a tap on the
screen. Obviously, it is longer
compared to the veteran Vine app
and leaves the choice to users if
they want to view it again. Here,
Vine gets the brownie points for
introducing looping and turning a
six second clip into an endlessly
playing piece of art.
Recording & Editing
Vine users can record a video by
tapping anywhere on the screen,
which fills the six second status
bar seen above the screen. It
shoots as long as you press and
hold your finger on the screen and
stops recording as soon as you
release your finger. The iOS
version will let you switch between
the front and the back camera.
However, if you make a mistake
then you will have to shoot the
video all over again.
The Instagram video app follows a
similar shooting process but has a
large red recording button while
the 15 second status bar takes
position below the screen. Each
time you release your finger while
shooting, the Instagram app
records that scene in an editable
format. This allows users to undo
only that particular scene and re-
shoot it, without the need to
record the entire video again.
Instagram also lets users edit the
video using filters. They can apply
and preview every video before
posting it. Besides, Instagram lets
users adjust the focus and
exposure while recording. Clearly,
Instagram has an edge over Vine,
when it comes to shooting and
editing.
Sharing
Both apps allow adding captions,
location and sharing it on social
sites. Both Vine and Instagram
allow liking the post and also
adding a comment. Vine users can
post it to the Vine user base,
Facebook (now also available for
Android), embed on web and
obviously Twitter. Instagram allows
sharing video on Instagram,
Facebook and Twiitter. Moving a
step ahead, Instagram also lets
you share videos with Tumblr and
Foursquare.
Explore
Vine’s Explorer feature is quite
efficient at discovering videos. It
has a neatly classified the Editor’s
Pick, trending videos and even the
popular ones. Instagram isn’t very
good at discovering new videos as
there isn’t any provision to filter
video content from still photos.
Instagram’s Explore feature isn’t
very helpful compared to Vine.
Verdict
In a nutshell, Instagram’s video
service isn’t something original or
novel, and has picked cues from
Vine. However, Facebook has added
some noteworthy features such as
adjusting focus and exposure, 13
filters and the undo option,
making it simpler to edit videos on
the go. It also offers more video
sharing options. On the other
hand, Vine has a neat interface,
better video discovering
capabilities and looping format. A
few timely updates could work
wonders for it, but for now
Instagram’s video mode has an
edge over Vine.