Facebook denies Twitter’s Vine app friend-finding feature

Facebook removes the ability of video sharing app Vine to find friends through Facebook

CUT VINE. Facebook disables Vine's ability to find friends through Facebook itself. Screen shot from Vine website.

MANILA, Philippines – Facebook is hampering attempts to make friends on video-sharing service Vine by disabling the ability of Vine to find friends through Facebook, the Wall Street Journal reports.

On Thursday, January 24, Twitter introduced the Vine app as a new acquisition. The Vine app, currently available on the iPod Touch and iPhone, allows users to create short, looping videos and then share them, whether it be on the Vine app or through another social service.

Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann discussed on a separate blog post how Twitter and Vine shared similar values and goals. “Like Twitter,” he explains, “we want to make it easier for people to come together to share and discover what’s happening in the world.”

Facebook put a damper on that, however, by adding a hindrance to Vine’s ability to connect to one’s existing friends.

The move, while surprising, was not entirely unexpected. Previously, Instagram, an acquisition of Facebook, disabled Twitter cards integration to make users visit Instagram to see photos taken using the service.

While users can still find their friends manually, the end result of the ongoing spat between Twitter and Facebook is that end-users lose out. – Rappler.com

 

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