Vine Goes On The Offensive, Teases New Features Ahead Of Instagram Video Launch

Nice timing, Vine.

As we inch closer to Facebook’s big Instagram press conference today, Vine co-founders Dom Hoffman and Rus Yusopov have taken to Vine (what else?) to show off some new features and UI enhancements that should be coming to the app soon.

As you can see from the Vines (embedded below), things are still relatively unclear. What we can glean from the six-second looping videos is that users may finally be able to create and save Vine drafts before sharing them. This would allow users to start a Vine, save it as a draft, and create other Vines in the meantime.

It’s a must-have feature for the new creation medium, which seems to ask for the passage of time in certain circumstances (like a Vine of you finishing your dinner, for example).

We also see an apparent redesign of the video stream, wherein the camera button moves to the bottom center of the screen and remains in place as you slide down the stream. Vines will pass down the stream one after the other, with no breaks for comments or likes.

It appears as though users have to click into particular Vines that they’d like to comment on, like, or read comments on.

The Verge has also spotted potential category additions to the app. As it stands now, popular hashtags float to the top of the Explore page, along with Editors picks. But the forthcoming update could bring standardized categories like Science & Technology, Comedy, Art, etc.

Clearly, Vine is pushing back against the possibility that Instagram will launch a highly competitive video-sharing service today. But as I’ve said before (and will likely say again), Vine will survive.

Revamped Video Stream/Categories:

Drafts:

via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/zGFEsX2vuN0/