Vine Successor Officially Called Byte, Will Launch In Spring 2019

Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann has announced that his successor to the video-looping app will be called Byte and it will launch in spring 2019. Details on what exactly Byte will look like or how it will work haven’t been revealed yet, but it will most likely fill in the hole left behind by Vine.

Hofmann made the announcement on his Twitter page on Thursday and he even shared the logo of the upcoming Byte app. Hofmann began developing the successor to Vine in 2017 and, for a long time, it was being called simply as “v2.” Hofmann confirmed that Byte is the same project and he has also set up a website where users can sign up to receive updates on the development of the new app.

Vine was founded in 2012 and was quickly acquired by Twitter the same year before it was released to the general public in January 2013. The app allowed users to record short 6-second videos that play in a loop. Users are able to create videos themselves, but it also allowed them to simply browse and watch other creators do their thing.

Vine quickly became a platform for short comedy videos and spawned numerous internet stars. Unfortunately, Twitter decided to discontinue Vine in October 2016 and was completely shut down in January 2017, but the company set up an archive where users will still be able to watch previously published Vine videos.

When Hofmann began development on Vine's successor late last year, he was funding the new project by himself outside of his company, Interspace. In May 2018, he announced that the development on the app was postponed indefinitely due to “financial and legal hurdles.” Now that Hofmann has announced Byte, it looks like he has already overcome those hurdles and has most likely been able to secure some funding to continue the project, according to The Verge.