Byte

About

Byte is the announced new app created by Vine creator Dom Hoffman. Hitherto referred to as "V2," the app promises to be similar to Vine and launch in 2019.

History

On November 8th, 2018, the Twitter account @byte_app^[1] made its first tweet. The Twitter's description reads: "a new looping video app by the creator of vine (coming soon)."

Dom Hoffman made several tweets that day explaining details of Byte, promising that Byte would launch in the Spring of 2019.^[2] Responding to a skeptic on Twitter, Hoffman explained that Byte already had funding, a team, and a product (shown below, right). Additionally, there is a website^[3] for Byte where people can sign up for updates and join a list of content of creators.

In the replies to the Byte account's tweet, Twitter users expressed their excitement with a number of reaction images and GIFs. Twitter user @thecoolbrownkid posted a Distracted Boyfriend meme expressing their excitement for Byte over TikTok (shown below, left). User @Master_Niko_ tweeted a GIF from The Office (shown below, right).

Launch

On January 24th, 2020, The Byte App Twitter^[4] account made a launch announcement that read: "dear friends, today we’re bringing back 6-second looping videos and a new community for people who love them. it’s called byte and it’s both familiar and new. we hope it’ll resonate with people who feel something’s been missing" (shown below). The tweet gained over 59,900 likes and 13,400 retweets in four days.

The next day, Redditors began reacting to the announcement with memes and commentary relating to TikTok. Redditor Nabiru-sama posted an Ah Shit, here we go again meme to r/memes^[5] (shown below, left). On January 27th, Redditor pippitymcpop posted a cooler daniel meme to r/byte^[6] comparing TikTok to Byte which received over 137 points (97% upvoted) in a day. Business Insider^[7] reported that Byte was downloaded over 780,000 times with in the first several days.

Search Interest

External References