Twitter is shutting down its Vine mobile apps ‘in the coming months’

It goes without saying that Twitter has been struggling lately, but it looks like there might be a bit of an explanation now for the news shared earlier today — alongside its earnings report for the quarter — that the company is laying off about 9 percent of its workforce. Twitter announced on Medium today that the Vine mobile applications for Android and iOS are being shut down soon…

Since 2013, millions of people have turned to Vine to laugh at loops and see creativity unfold. Today, we are sharing the news that in the coming months we’ll be discontinuing the mobile app.

Twitter says that while the app will be shuttered, it’s not happening quite yet. “We value you, your Vines, and are going to do this the right way,” the company said in its blog post. Nothing is disappearing today, and Twitter says that it will be “keeping the website online” assumably for some time after the apps are shuttered.  Twitter also says that creators will be able to download their Vines.

Here’s a little glimpse of the response from some of the bigger Vine stars, many of which of course suggesting that their content will still be flowing from Facebook, Instagram, and Google-owned YouTube. I was never a big Vine user, so this doesn’t affect me much, but if you do frequent the service, Twitter says that “you will be notified before we make any changes to the app or website.”

Speaking of that, here’s a little look at the response from some Viners:

I'll still be going strong on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube! A lot of cool stuff is coming! 😀

— David Lopez (@davidlopezfilms) October 27, 2016

Wow.. @vine is deleting their app and shutting it down… sad day considering it's where I first grew a following on social media :/

— Lance Stewart (@Lance210) October 27, 2016

Well, Vine may be going away, but this means I get to focus ALL my energy on YouTube! Hope you don't mind seeing my comedy in long form!! 😂😁

— Thomas Sanders (@ThomasSanders) October 27, 2016