In case you haven't heard, Vine is dead. Or at least breathing its last. Vine will cease to be on January 17th, to be replaced with a mobile app called Vine Camera. This will let you shoot short videos and share them to Twitter, but the Vine community will be gone forever.

In October 2016, Twitter announced it was shuttering Vine "in the coming months". It turns out that this meant January, and the date of Vine's departure is approaching fast. Twitter has now confirmed that Vine will disappear on January 17th, when Vine Camera will take its place.

What Happens Next?

If you use Vine it will become Vine Camera on January 17th. For those still intrigued enough to care, Vine Camera will allow you to make looping videos up to 6.5-seconds in length. However, you can only either save them to your camera roll or share them on Twitter.

The Vine website will become an archive of Vines created through the original Vine app. This means you'll be able to browse old Vines created by anyone but you won't see new Vines created using Vine Camera unless you're following the creator on Twitter.

There is a lot more information included in Vine's new FAQ. However, it's important to note that you need to download your Vines before the switch to Vine Camera occurs. You can do this through the Android or iOS apps, or through the vine.co website.

Ditching the Community to Become a Tool

We still don't quite know why Twitter decided to kill the short-form video-sharing service, we just know the decision to do so has upset a lot of people. Vine felt like a community, whereas Vine Camera is simply a tool allowing you to shoot short looping videos.

This means most Vine users are likely to abandon the platform altogether, choosing Instagram or YouTube instead. Which is a sad end for what once felt like a very promising venture. Still, with Twitter itself currently fighting for survival, this was probably inevitable.

Did you use Vine on a regular basis? If so, how do you feel about Twitter killing it off? Will you be trying Vine Camera? Or have you already switched to using Instagram or YouTube? What's your favorite Vine video of all time? Please let us know in the comments below!