Launch of Divine: A New Era for Short-Form Video
Divine, the much-anticipated revival of the short video platform Vine, was publicly launched on 18th August across Apple’s App Store, Google Play, and the ZapStore. The brainchild of one of Twitter’s co-founders and backed by Jack Dorsey, Divine debuts with a collection of 500,000 clips salvaged from Vine’s original archives, while also allowing users to create fresh six-second looping videos.
The application was initially announced in beta phase in late 2025, boasting a unique anti-AI model designed specifically for its purpose. Divine aims to recapture the essence of human creativity reminiscent of the early internet, positioning itself as a social network that prioritises human connections over the barrage of AI-generated content often found in today’s feeds.
Vine’s Legacy and the Rise of New Creators
Vine was instrumental in birthing the first real success stories in short-form content creation, giving rise to a pioneering generation of creators such as Lele Pons, MightyDuck, and Jack and Jack. These creators have already rallied behind Divine in an effort to reclaim their accounts. JimmyHere, one of Vine’s earliest notable creators, described that period as the “golden age of short content”, characterised by individuals with low-quality phones simply attempting to entertain one another without the influence of AI or hidden marketing agendas. The announcement of Divine’s public launch was accompanied by a partnership with Taco Bell.
Divine has its roots in the vision of Evan Henshaw-Plath, a former Twitter employee known as Rabble. In 2006, he recruited Jack Dorsey, who later acquired Vine, only to dissolve it, sell it to Elon Musk, and ultimately fund its resurgence through his open development collective, And Other Stuff.
Addressing Past Mistakes with Transparency
Divine asserts that Dorsey holds no equity in the platform, believing that the return of Vine in a decentralised format rectifies past oversights. This approach, however, seems to serve as a costly apology for having removed something valuable in the first place. The company’s branding for the new product is centred around ‘joyscrolling’, which is presented as a remedy for the pervasive issue of ‘doomscrolling’.
One of the core principles established by the creators of Divine is the outright prohibition of AI. While social media platforms grapple with varying degrees of chaos, Divine’s strategy involves addressing the root of the problem before it escalates. Consequently, users are currently unable to upload arbitrary files to the app; at this stage, only real-time, unedited content can be captured.
Innovative Restrictions for Authentic Content
“By limiting content creation to within the app, we can better ensure that the content is genuine and keep our community as free from generative content as possible,” reads a statement found in the app’s upload tab. According to Dorsey, Divine will maintain a restrictive model at least during its initial phase. The direct video capture from the camera will feature similar limitations to Twitter’s original 140-character constraint or Snapchat’s initial ephemeral photo model, before the option to upload files from the camera roll was introduced years later. Earlier this year, Meta launched Instagram Instants, following a similar principle of disappearing video and photo content integrated into direct messaging.
Ensuring Authenticity with Cryptographic Verification
To further guarantee the authenticity of videos, the platform employs the cryptographic verification system Proofmode, which confirms that a video was recorded using a genuine device. This open-source verification kit is the same one used to authenticate images from war zones.
Such measures represent one of the strictest application strategies attempted at a consumer scale by any platform to date. However, it is not infallible; anyone who has taken a screenshot of a Snapchat will understand the potential for lapses in this system.