The Instagram Video Versus Vine Showdown

Facebook's Instagram has finally unveiled a video feature in its 4.0 update. Many are happy to see video come to Instagram, and some are wondering if it will be a Vine killer. To me, its just the next development in the social media wars.

Vine arrived on Android at the beginning of this month, and five days later it passed Instagram's share volume on Twitter, perhaps enticing Instagram to chase after the Twitter-sanctioned video-sharing service.

The new feature's push-while-you-want-to-record function is pretty much the same as Vine's, but far less responsive on my iPhone 4—much slower to start and stop. Thus, quickly tapping the record button—as you would with Vine to create jolty stop-motion effects—is going to be a let down when Instagramming your videos.

The tool has topped Vine's max record-time by 8 seconds, allowing for long-playing 15 second-long videos. Its videos are HD, which means they're sharper and prettier as much as it means longer load times and more battery sucking. You have a classic set of Instagram filters to choose from (including black and white), and the ability to mute your video. It also has you select a thumbnail from your video's timeline which you can also go back and edit if you recorded a couple seconds of something that doesn't work for your director.

As an early adopter of Vine, I made hundreds of six-second video loops. The rawness and the challenge to capture animated life compelled me. I praised Vine for inherently teaching the masses to make loops and learn some basic rhythm. I also didn't feel like a boastful tween using it. I felt the mini-loops were more about comedy and immediate narrative than aspiration and things-you-ate-for-desert.

I decided to do a simple shoot-off between the two apps, with hardly any controls in place. First, I shot videos with Vine (constrained to six seconds). I then followed up with Instagram video (to beautify and elaborate)—an extended cut if you will. You be the judge:

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Josh Mosh

Tim Pool, decked out in Google Glass.

@danstuckey