Vine Successor Byte Launches to Take on Viral Video

Watch out, TikTok: The Original 6 second video app is back

Published January 27, 2020

Updated January 27, 2020 01:32PM EST

What: Vine successor Byte launched this weekend, brining 6-second viral-like videos “back” to the internet.

How: The Byte app is available for iOS and Android. Simply shoot or upload a short video to the service and browse other videos from creators all over.

Why Do You Care: The evolution of a video format begun by Vine and continued (more successfully) by TikTok is just beginning.

Remember Vine? The 6-second video app paved the way for hugely viral app TikTok, even after Vine was killed by Twitter soon after the social media company acquired it in 2016.

Hand holding iPhone X with byte app on screen — Unsplash

Now Vine’s co-creator Dom Hoffman is back with Byte, a (you guessed it) 6-second video app you use pretty much like Vine and TikTok. As the app’s account said on Twitter this weekend, “it’s both familiar and new.”

“You know the drill: upload from your camera roll or use the byte camera to capture stuff,” tweeted the @byte_app account. “there are lots of ways to find new personalities and moments. explore what the community is watching and loving, view posts handpicked by our editors, or browse on your own.”

In other words, if you used Vine or use TikTok, you’ll know how to work Byte. Swipe up to see new videos, create your own profile, follow creators you like, or search and browse for new, popular, or genre-specific “bytes.”

While Vine was the first to popularize the format, TikTok has become the king of short-form viral video. Byte enters a very different market than than its predecessor. Whether bytes will become as popular or as socially shared as TikToks remains to be seen, of course.