Vine comes to Android minus a few features

Prayers of Android users have been answered. Twitter has made its video-sharing app Vine available for Android, sans a few features from the iOS version of

Nishtha Kanal|Jun 04, 2013, 08:47:41 IST

Prayers of Android users have been answered. Twitter has made its video-sharing app Vine available for Android, sans a few features from the iOS version of the app, though.

Even as Twitter announced that its fledgling video recording and sharing app has hit 13 million users, it is expanding Vine to Google’s Android. Vine was available exclusively on iOS devices earlier.

Using the app, you can create short six-second videos in a looping format and can add sound to it too. Once you’re done creating a video, you can embed it in a tweet or on your website and can also share it on multiple social networking websites and via email.

Finally on Android

The Android version of the app, though, seems a bit incomplete as of now. It lacks certain features that have been available with the iOS version of Vine for a while now. “Though we’ve been very focused on releasing Vine for Android, we’ve continued to release updates and add new features to the iOS app. As a result, the two apps are not perfectly in sync, but that won’t be the case for long,” the company admitted in a blog post. Twitter, however, promises that Android users will see regular updates with new features over coming weeks, including front-facing camera support, search, mentions, hashtags and the ability to share over Facebook.

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As a complimentary measure, Vine for Android seems to have one feature the iOS app does not have – zoom. The rest of the app is pretty much like the one we’ve seen on iOS. You can tap-and-hold record, explore popular posts, find friends and even invite people to join in.

While the app seems to have come not too long after the iOS version was made available earlier this year, the release seems slightly hurried and lacks certain basic functions you would expect of an app. Hopefully, Twitter will stick to its word of making newer features available to the app.

Vine for Android is available for devices running version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and up and is already available in the Play Store.

By Nishtha Kanal

Intrigued by all things social, Nishtha will invariably tweet about you. When not tweeting or writing about the next viral video, you will hear her proclaiming her love to Metallica, James Hetfield, Opeth, Akerfeldt and all bands that go 'growl'. She also obsesses about ACP Pradyuman and South Park and you will always find her moving around with a book. Her focus is on all the happening stuff in the tech domain, and she won't hesitate to take a shot at some of the oddball devices that make their way to our labs.