Vine’s successor is moving forward with public beta, new name

The chances that we’d see Vine’s follow-up weren’t looking good in May, when its founder, Dom Hofmann, posted a message on the site’s community forums confessing he didn’t have enough backing money to move the app forward.

That appears to be changing. Hofmann posted a new message in the forum board on Oct. 8, announcing that he was working on a public beta and was asking those most active in the Vine community to sign up for testing.

“Respond to this thread with your device type (e.g. iPhone Xs), and anything else you’d like to share, and I’ll add you to the first public beta of the new app,” Hofmann wrote. “You will also receive a special badge or reward of some sort in the app. There is no timeline on when invites will go out yet, but I’m working on it. Please give it some time. I will post an update when the invites are sent out.”

Hofmann also announced on Twitter that the Vine successor is no longer called V2, adding that he wouldn’t be providing any more information until there are more “concrete details.”

“I’m working on this because I loved vine and I want to see things through in another permutation,” Hofmann tweeted. “Not because I see opportunity. But I’ve mishandled this, so if that’s not enough, I get it. There are plenty of other apps in the store that are similar and worth your time. Vine was 99 percent community and one percent the app we built for them. So ‘Vine’ being ‘back; really comes down to whether or not the community is there. Regardless of the name or who made it. I like to think that I can build a team and app that encourages that, but otherwise I have no claim.”

Members of the forum, which has remained incredibly active despite Vine’s uncertain future, are currently celebrating.

“With this chance we’ll not only get able to get a head start on an amazing app, but also we’ll have the ability to inspire millions from the next couple generations and save lives,” one community member, Caleb Hines, wrote. “Please, use your platform to make the world a better place! Shape the future you want to live in. The reason this group is so great is because we are so different. We have different talents, traits, and come from all types of backgrounds! Diversity is the future and with this app we can promote that and more! Don’t necessarily just use this app to become ‘famous,’ use this app to change someone’s life. Just inspiring one person a day is all I ask!

“Learn from people who got lost in fame and stay solid in this community.”

Just because Hofmann has announced he’s taking emails for a future beta doesn’t mean it will be released anytime soon. No start date has been announced.