Vine gets private video and text messaging, opens the sexting floodgates

Twitter has updated its Vine short video sharing app with direct video messaging and private chat abilities, bringing it in line with the competition but also potentially turning it into the go-to sexting app to replace the likes of Snapchat.

Almost six months after Facebook’s rival Instagram launched a similar feature, Vine has matched it with its own video messaging as the app reaches version 2.0.

You can share a private video with multiple people at once, but each recipient will appear as a separate conversation in the app. You aren’t limited to sending clips to people you know, either; as long as you know the username you can send videos to anyone else using Vine, or to anyone in your address book that has yet to join the service. Anyone concerned about receiving unsolicited smut from random strangers can opt out of the feature by opening the app, going to the Privacy tab under the Settings menu and turning off the “Open VM inbox”.

The update also adds the ability to choose your profile’s background colour, helping it stand out when people search for you by name or click on one of your videos through to your profile.

The video messaging update should be rolling out globally on both iOS and Android now.

Did Vine make our Best Android apps list? Find out here