Byte, a new app from the developer of six-second looping video app Vine, launched after a lengthy closed beta last night. Vine was well known for its dedicated users and a vibrant community of creators, and while the original app was a smaller social network than its parent Twitter, fans and personalities alike mourned its loss when the company shut the app down in 2017.
Byte was originally announced as V2 at the end of that year by Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann, who intended the new service to do right by the creators and viewers that made Vine successful. Hofmann was also a head developer on minimalist social network Peach before leaving that team in order to focus on Byte's development, which temporarily ceased in 2018.
In the time since Byte's announcement to launch, an unforeseen competitor emerged in TikTok, another app built around short looping videos. Developed by Chinese tech conglomerate Bytedance (no relation), the app grew massively in the United States and abroad after its original version, Douyin, merged with Musical.ly in 2018.
With 500 million active users, TikTok is one of the largest social networks on the internet, but Bytedance has been scrutinized for allegedly sharing private TikTok user data with the Chinese government. Byte has an uphill climb, but the app could still resonate with users by avoiding similar scandals.
The original version of Vine reached some impressive highs while it was still up and running. The app's peak of 200 million active users was nothing to sneeze at, and many of the platform's personalities have gone on to launch successful careers elsewhere. Compilations of funny and creative Vines still rack up thousands of views on YouTube over two years after its shutdown.
Only time will tell if users adopt Byte as a true successor to Vine or if TikTok will end up victorious as the reigning king of short videos on the internet, but with a laser-focused format that keeps the original length limitation in place and a goal of putting users and creators' needs and desires first, the chances are strong that Byte will find its own niche in the evolving landscape of the web.
Byte is available now for Android and iOS.