Vine finally climbs to Windows Phone, beats Instagram to the punch

Vine Windows Phone official
The first official image of Vine on Windows Phone 8

Because any video longer than six seconds probably isn't worth watching, Twitter's Vine app has finally arrived on Windows Phone 8.

Vine climbs to Microsoft's mobile OS ahead of rival Facebook's photo-sharing Instagram app, which is expected to arrive on WP8 soon as well.

Windows Phone users have been waiting for Vine and other popular apps to make the jump to their platform, but the going has been slow.

With makers of the most popular apps finally taking notice of the platform, that could soon change.

Get excited

The Vine app for Windows Phone is nearly identical to the apps on other platforms, with one small extra that Vine designer Ryan Swigart mentioned in a blog post today.

Vine users on Windows Phone can pin the accounts of other users to their home screens, making them easy to access.

"We love to see what each person contributes to Vine, and we're excited to welcome Windows Phone users to the community," Swigart wrote.

He invited Vine users to tweet their feedback to Vine's official Twitter account.

Stepping up the game

Vine and Instagram have been available for years on iOS and Android, but Windows Phone's customer base is still extremely small compared to the more popular mobile operating systems.

Microsoft is doing everything in its power to change that, including buying up its main device maker, Nokia.

Nokia just unveiled a new Windows Phone 8 tablet, the Lumia 2520, and the Finnish company is believed to have plenty of other WP8 devices in the works.

These may include products with suspicious codenames like "Goldfinger," "Moneypenny," "Phantom," "Normandy" and "Spinel," according to a tipster's report November 11.

Besides Instagram and Vine, we're also expecting Flipboard to arrive on WP8 soon, considering the aggregation app was shown off at Nokia's Lumia 2520 announcement.

Michael Rougeau

Michael Rougeau is a former freelance news writer for TechRadar. Studying at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Northeastern University, Michael has bylines at Kotaku, 1UP, G4, Complex Magazine, Digital Trends, GamesRadar, GameSpot, IFC, Animal New York, @Gamer, Inside the Magic, Comic Book Resources, Zap2It, TabTimes, GameZone, Cheat Code Central, Gameshark, Gameranx, The Industry, Debonair Mag, Kombo, and others.


Micheal also spent time as the Games Editor for Playboy.com, and was the managing editor at GameSpot before becoming an Animal Care Manager for Wags and Walks.