The "Second Vine" Is Officially Happening — And Here's How It Works

If you’re still mourning the loss of beloved video app Vine, perhaps you will take some solace in the recently released first details about v2, the forthcoming app many are hoping will fill the six-second hole in each of our hearts.

Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann hinted at the new app in early December with a tweet: a picture that read “v2” in a Vine-like font and against a light green background reminiscent of Vine’s logo. On Monday, Hofmann posted a follow up tweet to the vague December announcement writing, “[W]e've been trying to make v2 happen for over half a year. [N]o one was supportive. 54 days ago [I] tweeted about it, without a plan, to force the issue.” Now, a few first details about the app have surfaced on v2’s community forums, giving some insight to what the new platform might entail.

For starters, v2 is not to be called “Vine 2.” (v2 is like that kid from high school who started going by a new name in college and now that’s their whole thing.) As Hofmann wrote on the v2 community forum in early January, “Because some of our team founded and worked on Vine, it’s reasonable to assume that there might be a formal connection, but there isn’t one.” Twitter bought the app Vine in 2012 for $30 million before shutting it down four years later, which Hofmann was quick to clarify in his post. “Vine is owned by Twitter,” he wrote, “and is not associated with v2.”

So, how will v2 work? Apparently, pretty similarly to Vine. According to TechCrunch, videos on the app will be between 2 and 6.5 seconds like. (I guess that extra .5 seconds is what makes it *very* different from Vine?) v2 videos will loop seamlessly, in Vine-fashion, and will be able to be captured in-app or uploaded from your camera roll. As Hofmann told TechCrunch, v2 won’t feature any “color filters, face filters, or geo filters.” So you’ll have to keep your dog ears and “pretty filters” in Snapchat and Instagram Stories.

One of the most significant changes in v2 will be regarding copyrighted content. v2 will “take down videos that include major record label music or movie scene if it receives a DMCA notice.” Thankfully, they’re also working on ways to dissuade users (i.e. using watermarks) from stealing other creator’s content.

Building a more welcoming community also appears to be one of the priorities for the new app. Specifically, Hofmann tells TechCrunch v2 will take a more strict approach to moderating. “It’s okay to disagree with or be critical of someone’s work,” Hofmann said, “but name calling, facetious attitudes, or any other form of indirect harassment won’t be tolerated.” Open to users over the age of 13, v2 will also allow its creators to disable comments on videos as well as choose their prefered gender pronouns on their profiles.

Format-wise, v2 will do away with the square video. Focusing on vertical and horizontal video, v2’s content will be fullscreen.The app is also planning on featuring chronological timeline, a detail which will come as a sweet relief to those frustrated by non-chronological algorithms on Instagram and other platforms.

When can we expect to enjoy v2 and start spending the rest of our days watching our favorite videos on an infinite loop? While there’s no formal release date, or even current plan for a beta sign-up, Hofmann told TechCrunch v2’s debut will “definitely [be] in 2018,” perhaps as early as this spring or summer.

That gives you a few solid months to start planning how you’ll best utilize the new video looping app. Although, “do it for the v2” is admittedly not quite as catchy as the original.