If you’re a fan of social networking sites, you’ve probably heard that Instagram now has Video, so it’s a lot like Twitter’s Vine now.  Some have already dubbed it the Vine killer, but is it really?

SiliconANGLE’s Ryan Cox argues that since Instagram offers both video and photo edits, there’s no more room for Vine in the mobile and social story.

“130 million, Instagrams most recent user base number, is quite a starting block. To add Vine’s fight back to relevance, it doesn’t help that 99 percent of Vine’s community is early adopters who already have Instagram too. If one does both, the other isn’t needed,” Cox stated.

But is Instagram Video really the death of Vine?  Let’s do a quick comparison:

Battle of the mini Videos	*	*
Maximum video length	15s	6s
Editing	Yes	No
Filters	Yes	No
Cover frame	Yes	No
Record-stop-record function	Yes	Yes
Support for front camera	Yes	Yes (iOS)
Image stabilization	Yes (iOS)	No
Zoom	No	Yes (Android)
Save to camera roll	Yes	Yes
Sharing	Instagram on Web, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, email, foursquare	Vine on Web, Facebook, Twitter
Sharing restrictions	Yes	No
Autoplay	Yes	Yes
Automatic sound	Yes	Yes
Looping	No	Yes
Embeddable	No	Yes (On web)
Geotagging	Yes	Yes
Photo map	Yes	No

 Who Wins?

Based on the table above, it seems as though Instagram has got it in the bag.  It has filters, editing options, more platforms to share your creation, longer video, plus image stabilization for iOS.  But are filters and editing options really enough to take down Vine?

• Is longer always better?

Fifteen seconds may still sound like a short amount of time, but if you’ve got nothing of value to show people, that’s just 15 seconds of their wasted time.  Six seconds, on the other hand, is just enough time to capture viewers’ attention.  It’s not too long and videos are straight to the point.  And because it’s looping, Vine media is like a GIF, and we know how popular they are.  A 6-second looping video of a baby laughing hysterically may be more entertaining than a 15-second video of a duck-faced girl.

• Filters doesn’t mean art

Filters, they say, make photos seem more artistic.  Some describe filters as giving depth to a photo.  But seriously, adding a sepia filter to a photo of a vase is not artistic or intriguing.  You’re just bored.  And the same goes for videos.  If you add filters, it seems like you’re trying to hide something in the background.  Some may argue that the real art in taking videos is making something memorable in just 6 seconds, and something beautiful without having to edit it.

Instagram takes the cake

So which is better?  If you base my conclusion on the previous paragraphs, you’d assume I’d choose Vine, right?  Nope.  I’ve used both apps and I could say that Instagram is more fun to use because of the filters and other editing options, plus Vine was a bit buggy for me.

My argument above just proves how this versus piece is like Android vs. iOS.  Instagram has laid out almost everything you need to create beautiful videos and photos with its editing and filtering options while Vine just offers people a way to create looping videos and it’s up to them to make the videos look good.

So which strategy will win?  Which platform will survive?  Again, it’s like Android and iOS, some would choose to stick with Vine, while others would go for Instagram’s video and photo offerings.

If you’re looking for a quick guide on how use Instagram’s Video, check out Quick How-To for Video on Instagram + #RIPVine Memes for Cox’s tutorial.