Vine, Like the Rest of the Tech World, Is Moving Into Private Messaging

Vine, the app known for its six-second videos, introduced a way for users to privately send those videos and texts to friends. It's just one in a series of moves in the tech world shifting even more to private communication.

Vine, the app known for its six-second videos, introduced a way for users to privately send those videos and texts to friends. It's just one in a swath of series in the tech world shifting even more to private communication.

Called Vine Messages, the new feature allows users to send awkward, funny-looking, or even suggestive short videos to friends. Indeed, the private messaging feature comes about a month after Vine officially banned pornography from its system. As Gizmodo notes, this seems like a good way to bring sexting and its close adherents over to the video app for racy, looping videos.

The deal solidifies the growing move in the tech industry to focus on private messaging as the future of communication. Vine is owned by Twitter, which itself introduced photo direct messaging late last year. And consider also Facebook's $16 billion purchase of messaging service WhatsApp, the continued rise of Snapchat, and the introduction of Instagram Direct. It's too early to say whether or not any of those are set to last for the future, but the tech industry is certainly fighting to be in control of your private communication.

It's not that private communication ever necessarily left, but there is a renewed emphasis among the giants of Silicon Valley. And hey, if that means the guy on Vine who had sex with a hot pocket can't be public anymore, that might not be such a bad thing.