Elon Musk says he’s bringing back Vine — sort of. The X owner announced over the weekend that the company discovered the video archive for the popular short-form video app, thought to have been deleted, and is working to restore user access.
Vine, a precursor to today’s TikTok, featured only 6-second-long looping videos. Twitter acquired it in October 2012 for $30 million to expand its video ambitions. However, the company struggled to capitalize on Vine’s potential and eventually shut it down in 2016 by limiting new uploads. The app was fully discontinued the following year, though a user archive remained temporarily.
Despite no longer being available on the App Store, Vine maintains a place in internet culture. Compilations of the best Vines on YouTube and the careers of creators who started on the platform keep its legacy alive, introducing its content to new generations.
Musk showed interest in reviving Vine after acquiring Twitter, now called X, in October 2022. He polled users, asking if they wanted Vine back, and nearly 70% responded “yes.” Reports at the time suggested Twitter had engineers working on a Vine reboot, but no progress was made.
Recently, Musk revealed that the Vine video archive was found and is being restored for user access. However, it’s unclear if he has broader plans for Vine beyond this. In the same announcement, he promoted Grok’s new video-creation feature, Grok Imagine, calling it “AI Vine.” This suggests his focus may have shifted from human creativity to AI-generated content.
Whether Musk will follow through remains uncertain. The announcement could simply be a way to draw attention to Grok AI rather than a serious effort to revive Vine.
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