cieux1

Posted on Oct 10

Do You Miss Vine? I do. So I made a little app inspired by it.

#ios #swift #ai #indiehackers

Do You Miss Vine?

Vine was Twitter's video app. You could record and post videos up to six seconds long, and they would automatically loop when they ended. There was a time when Twitter was full of creative videos made within that six-second constraint. People enjoyed watching them.

Maybe it was because there was no viable business model, but Vine was discontinued rather abruptly. I still remember getting a LINE message from my mother, who was pretty good at using her iPad mini: "Vine has turned black." She was talking about the app icon.

So, I made a similar camera app called Veeene.

It's been a while since we've entered the era of everyone being an AI creator [citation needed], so I guess I'm a creator now, too.

Hello, I'm Veeene

👉 Download Veeene on the App Store

It's pronounced "Veen," not "Vine."

Features

Record a few short clips, and you get one looping video up to 12 seconds long.

Here's the recording screen:

Why 12 Seconds Instead of 6?

At first, I set the limit to six seconds, just like Vine. If you're making something Vine-like, six seconds seems like the obvious choice.

But when I actually tried using it, six seconds felt a little too short by today's standards. I think we've gotten used to watching slightly longer short-form videos on TikTok and Instagram Reels.

(Or maybe the exciting part back then was simply being able to stitch clips together and upload them to social media without video-editing software. Maybe that's not exciting anymore. I briefly stared into the distance, but thinking too hard about it would have kept me from finishing the app, so I pretended not to notice and pushed ahead toward release.)

After trying a few things, I settled on 12 seconds.

Two Ways to Record

There are two recording modes:

Tap and hold: Recording continues while you hold the button, up to three seconds per clip.
Tap: Records a three-second clip automatically.

Once the total reaches 12 seconds, you can't add any more clips.

Tap and Hold: Record in Short Bursts

You can connect short clips and experiment with different rhythms.
You can optionally add the date and time. There are three font styles.
The colors look pretty limited here because this is a GIF.
I visited two convenience stores to shoot sample footage.
After eating ice cream, I was going to devour a local Okinawan Zebra Bread, too. Then I turned the package over, saw 730 kcal, and decided against it.

Tap: Record Three Seconds at a Time

Recording stops automatically after three seconds.
Since the total limit is 12 seconds, you'll end up recording four clips.
You can mix the two recording methods in the same video, of course. And vice versa.

Some Thoughts

Thinking About Constraints

When you let AI handle the coding, building a simple app like a camera app can be surprisingly quick. But once you start making it, ideas for features keep popping into your head. Before you know it, the app is getting more and more complicated.

At one point, I felt like I was just making something increasingly similar to the built-in iOS Camera app. I was losing sight of what I wanted to build.

So, with Veeene, I tried not to add features just because I could. I wanted to keep it simple and focus on recording short clips in sequence.

I debated whether to let users upload directly to social platforms when exporting. In the end, I decided not to include that feature for now. Export the video and upload it to whichever social network you prefer.

I Barely Wrote Any Code

Writing this might make some developers sigh and mutter, "Oh, come on." I can almost hear it.

But for this project, I mostly took the role of a designer, thinking through the specifications and UI while Claude Code did the implementation. Not writing the code doesn't mean there's nothing to think about. The work just shifts to other areas.

Some of the decisions I made were:

Make the video 12 seconds long.
Use four clips of up to three seconds each.
Design the recording UI.
Decide on the monetization model.

Pricing

Free: Veeene

Create up to three videos at a time. Export and delete a video, and you can make another.
Videos include a watermark.

Paid: Veeene+

No limit on the number of videos you can create.
Combine multiple videos when exporting.

Prices

$1.99 / month ($14.99 / year)

This is my first app, and I had no idea what to charge. I went with the lowest pricing Claude suggested.

My App Store Review Was Rejected Once

My first submission received a Guideline 2.1 request for additional information.

Apple asked for things like:

A screen recording showing how the app works.
Explanations of various items in the app.
A response of up to 4,000 characters.

The purchase screen was particularly important. The recording needed to clearly show the price, subscription duration, and links to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

I ran into a small problem with TestFlight. The sandbox account's subscription state persisted, so I couldn't display the purchase screen as it would appear to someone who hadn't subscribed.

I cleared the test account's subscription state and recorded the app in its initial state. Then I submitted the information.

The app passed review about five days later.

App Store Registration Is a Pain

I feel like I've read something similar somewhere before, but the time I spent implementing the app was about the same as the time I spent creating the promotional slide images for the App Store.

Both took roughly a week, working on them on and off.