Vine needs a boost. Usage of the simple app, which lets you shoot and share six-second looping video clips, has steadily dropped ever since Instagram added video-sharing to its photo service.
To provide that leg-up, Twitter-owned Vine has just added some new features. The camera tools have been improved, and discovery of interesting clips inside the app has been made easier.
The app's camera has a new grid overlay, new focusing capabilities, and a ghosting tool -- it overlays the last thing the camera recorded, so you can line up concurrent clips to make less-jarring jump cuts and more refined six-second loops. The service also has 15 new channels to explore (including one for cats!). If you're browsing the categories and you find something you'd like to share, a new feature called "Revining" shares video within your timeline, a la Tumblr and re-blogging. Previously, you could only share vines via other social networks, or by embedding the chosen video on a site.
Finally, if you're making uh, private vines, you can now create a protected account. Turn it on, and only your special friends will be able to see your special vines. All other vines remain public as before.
Vine burst onto the scene a few months ago with its six-second video sharing platform, and it was quickly adopted as the go-to video platform for quick mobile snacking. But photo-sharing juggernaut Instagram, which has over 130 million users, introduced its own video sharing feature on June 20, and it's since taken a big bite out of Vine's usage.
All of the new features are available for iOS right now. The Android app will be updated with protected posts later today, with the other features being rolled out next week.
