Earlier this year Twitter announced that the Vine platform was being shut down due to continuous drops in user and increasing costs. Twitter has now clarified that Vine was not going away entirely. A new app called Vine Camera will launch in January and will be integrated into the Twitter platform.
"With this camera app you'll still be able to make six-second looping videos, and either post them directly to Twitter or save them on your phone," the Vine team posted on the official site. It was also confirmed that users will be given the tools to migrate their Vine followers over to Twitter.
According to the Verge, users who download their content back will also get an index.html file that will contain the video caption, number of likes, comments and the total number of revines. Downloading the videos on the Vine app will also give back the video but not the captions and other information.
It is also noted that users can opt to receive an email with links to all of the posted Vine videos. This will be a quicker option for those unable to retrieve each video individually. Twitter users will also receive pop-ups that suggest users to follow renowned video content creators.
Users are also being given the chance to download their Vines. The Vine website itself will remain functional and users can continue to watch previous Vines. Posting new videos will no longer be made available starting in January.
Vine's announcement that the platform would be shut down came after the company let go 350 employees, Variety reported. The company announced at the time that it would be re-evaluating its core initiatives.
The network used to flourish as a highly popular comedy platform but numerous content creators left in favour of newer services such as Instagram and Snapchat. It is further stated that Vine also suffered due to its slow rollout of crucial features such as monetization opportunities.