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How to use Byte, the new 6-second video-sharing app hoping to succeed Vine and compete with TikTok
How to use Byte, the new 6-second video-sharing app hoping to succeed Vine and compete with TikTok
Paige LeskinJan 28, 2020, 22:08 IST
Byte; Paige Leskin/Business Insider
Byte is a newly released app for watching, creating, and sharing six-second videos.
The app is already being touted as a successor to the popular app Vine, which shut down in early 2017, and a worthy competitor to TikTok, the app that's adored by Generation Z and behind some of the internet's most viral memes.
Here's how to use Byte, which was released publicly on Friday, to discover clips and create videos of your own.
Byte was made available in iOS and Android app stores last week following more than two years of operating in beta and building anticipation. The app is led by Vine cofounder Dom Hofmann, who saw his original video app killed in early 2017.
Byte draws similarities to its predecessor Vine: videos are maxed out at six seconds, play in loops, and can be re-posted to other users' accounts to share with their followers. However, the new 2020 atmosphere for social platforms means that Byte is up against TikTok, the wildly popular app well past 1.5 billion downloads.
Here's everything you need to know about how to use Byte for watching, sharing, and creating six-second videos:
The home page of the Byte app is your feed for discovering content from a variety of users across the platform. If you've ever used TikTok, this page will look familiar: To find more content, scroll vertically and the next video will automatically start playing. Aside from commenting and liking photos, users can also reblog videos: You can see if the video on your feed was reposted if there's a note above the caption.
Next to the comment and heart icons, each video has an arrow with additional actions: share the video, repost the video to your Byte feed as a "rebyte," and report the video for being inappropriate or in violation of Byte's community guidelines.
Under the sharing button, Byte users are given options to distribute a video via text message, email, and a variety of social platforms. However, it's important to note that Byte videos don't have links. That means that the only way to share a video is right from Byte's app: You can't copy and paste a link to your friends. Videos still display a tag that says Byte is in a beta version.
The second tab on Byte is where users can discover videos broken down by category and channel, including "pets," "chill," "experimental," and "weird" (which is currently spelled incorrectly as "wierd" in the app). This tab also has a search bar — however, it can only be used for searching by username, and there's no option for searching by caption or video contents (like on TikTok).
When you click on or discover a Byte user, the app will display their profile (on the left). This is where you can see all of the videos of a certain user, and choose to follow them so they can appear high up in your home feed. On each profile, you can also block or report the user, or choose to view the user's "rebytes" to see the type of content they like from others.
The lightning bolt icon in Byte's horizontal menu bar is for your activity, such as new followers, and likes, comments, and reblogs of your videos.
The right-most icon is where you can find your Byte profile. User profiles can be pretty personalized: Besides adding a profile photo, display name, and short bio, users can choose from a variety of color schemes to apply to their profiles.
Also in your profile tab is the settings menu, where users can sort through and get more details about how they interact and use the app. The most important settings may differ depending on how you use the app. If you're mainly a browser and viewer of videos, you can see the videos you've liked and reblogged. If you're a creator, you may be more interested in the stats tracking your number of followers and video views (called "loops").
For Byte users who want to go beyond viewing videos, the app's section for content creation can be found under the middle circular button. Byte will pull up a simple content studio, with buttons for recording and switching between front and back-facing cameras. The progress bar at the top tracks how much more time you have in your six-second timeframe to add additional clips.
Under two buttons, Byte allows users to to upload videos from their phone and integrate them into their Byte videos. You can cut and edit the video segment you want to use for your video in the Byte app.
Byte's main competitor, TikTok, has a variety of popular, high-tech effects available to users for their video creations. Meanwhile, it appears Byte has only one filter: "ghost mode," where you overlay an image onto a video you're recording.
Once a few seconds of video has been recorded for your Byte, a white arrow at the top-left corner of the screen will appear, allowing you to publish your video. Before publishing, you can give your video a caption and add it to a channel, which users can click on in the explore tab.
Byte is still in its early stages, and it's likely the app will change and address issues as more users download the app. In its first weekend after being released Friday, Byte attracted 780,000 downloads on both iOS and Android devices, according to data from app analytics firm Sensor Tower.
