Almost a decade after going offline, Vine is (kind of) again and, in a really weird twist, Jack Dorsey is not less than partially accountable. An early Twitter worker has launched a beta model of a rebooted Vine — now known as "Divine" — that revives the app's six-second movies and features a portion of the unique app's archive.
The challenge comes from Evan Henshaw-Plath, a former Twitter worker who goes by "Rabble," and has backing from Dorsey's nonprofit "and Different Stuff," which funds experimental social media apps constructed on the open supply nostr protocol. Rabble has to date managed to resurrect about 170,000 movies from the unique Vine due to an previous archive created earlier than Twitter shut down the app in 2017. In an FAQ on Divine's web site, he says that he additionally hopes to revive "tens of millions" of consumer feedback and profile images related to these authentic posts as nicely.
However Divine is greater than only a dwelling for decade-old clips. New customers can create six-second looping movies of their very own for the platform. The app additionally has many parts that shall be acquainted to individuals who have used Bluesky or different decentralized platforms, together with customizable controls for content material moderation and a number of feed algorithms to select from. The location's FAQ says Divine plans to assist customized, user-created algorithms too.
Divine can be taking a reasonably sturdy stance towards AI-generated content material. The app could have built-in AI detection instruments that may add badges to content material that's been verified as not created or edited with AI instruments. And, in keeping with TechCrunch, the app will block uploads of suspected AI content material.
"We're in the midst of an AI takeover of social media," Divine explains on its web site. New apps like Sora are solely AI-generated. TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram are more and more flooded with AI slop—movies that look actual however have been by no means captured by a digicam, individuals who don't exist, eventualities that by no means occurred. Divine is preventing again. We're creating an area the place human creativity is well known and guarded, the place you’ll be able to belief that what you're watching was made by an actual individual with an actual digicam, not generated by an algorithm."
Whereas all that will sound intriguing, Divine has a protracted solution to go earlier than it may well accomplish all that. The app hasn't made it onto both app retailer but, although it's already added 10,000 individuals to an iOS beta, in keeping with its founder. Within the meantime, it’s also possible to browse among the app's movies, together with some previous Vine posts, on its web site, although not the entire movies are working correctly in the intervening time.
Nonetheless, any type of reboot is sweet information for followers of the unique, who’ve lengthy hoped the app would possibly make a comeback. Elon Musk has recommended greater than as soon as that he would revive Vine not directly, however has but to observe by means of.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/divine-is-a-jack-dorsey-backed-vine-reboot-for-2025-192307190.html?src=rss