Skip to main content

Vine update adds front-facing camera and mentions

vine front facing camera

Since Vine launched, we’ve all been busy experimenting with the GIF-like app – however, this has been limited since you can only use the back-facing camera. Not many of us have been too troubled about about a front-facing camera, unless we’re Adam Goldberg, a.k.a “The King of Vine,” who has a pretty good reason to want such a feature. But fear not: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey took to Twitter today and announced that Vines can now be recorded using the iOS’s front-facing camera.

We’ve seen a Film Festival take place using Vine videos courtesy of the Tribeca Film Festival, and reporters have also made ample use of the app – so a front-facing option makes sense. To use this feature tap the button in the bottom left corner of the app to switch to the front facing camera. You can even swap between the front and back facing camera during the video recording process if your fingers are dexterous enough.

Dorsey also added that Vine users can now mention other users. How this works is that you can type in their username and select the appropriate person in the drop down list that pops up – exactly how it works in any other social app.

This is only the latest in a fairly long line of updates since Vine launched in January. Since then we’ve seen the introduction of Web embeds, and the ability to share Vines to Twitter and Facebook. And these updates are rolling out for good reason. This video sharing platform has not only been given some film festival spotlight, but we’ve also seen the first Vine trailer, and it was also used to capture footage of the Boston Marathon bombing.

Unfortunately there’s no word yet about an Android version of the app. In response to a request for comment, a Twitter spokesperson says there are no details to share right now.

Topics
Francis Bea
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Francis got his first taste of the tech industry in a failed attempt at a startup during his time as a student at the…
Twitter will soon be a bit less irritating for many people
Twitter logo in white stacked on top of a blue stylized background with the Twitter logo repeating in shades of blue.

With or without Elon Musk at the helm, Twitter can’t seem to decide what it wants to do with its algorithmic timeline, currently branded as “for you,” which shows tweets it thinks you'll like, whether or not you follow the tweeter.

For years it’s been messing about not only with the algorithm but also with the extent to which it forces the timeline on users.

Read more
Thanks to Tapbots’ Ivory app, I’m finally ready to ditch Twitter for good
Profile displayed in Ivory app

Ever since Elon Musk took ownership of Twitter, it’s been one chaotic new thing after another. You literally cannot go a day (or a few days or even a week) without some stupid new change to the site — whether it’s about checkmarks for verified or Twitter Blue subscriber accounts, how links to other social networks are banned and then reversed, view counts on Tweets, or something else. I can’t keep up with every little thing that has happened since the beginning of November, and it feels like the spotlight is always on the toxicity of the site in general.

New Twitter alternatives have been popping up recently, but it seems that the most popular one continues to be Mastodon. I originally made a Mastodon account back in 2018 when it first launched, but it never clicked with me back then, and I eventually went back to Twitter. With the Musk mess, I tried going back to Mastodon, but again, it didn’t really click with me — until Tweetbot developer, Tapbots, revealed its next project: Ivory.
The significance of Tapbots and Tweetbot

Read more
What is Twitter Blue and is it worth it?
Twitter Blue menu option on a white screen background which is on a black background.

If you spend time on Twitter, you've probably heard the phrase "Twitter Blue" at some point and wondered what exactly it is. We're not talking about the signature shade of blue featured in its logo -- we're talking about the premium version of Twitter.

That's right. There's a paid tier for Twitter that many people don't even know exists that launched in July of 2021. And then relaunched again under Elon Musk's ownership in November 2022. Don't worry -- we'll explain everything below.
What is Twitter Blue?

Read more