Byte
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Vine successor Byte addresses spam issues days after launch

Vine successor Byte is officially here but it may be a little bit annoying for the foreseeable future. The creator behind Byte and Vine, Dom Hofmann took to the internet to issue some statements regarding some issues with the recently-launched app.

Apparently, follower-thirsty users are spamming comments sections of other users, making for a very annoying experience. Well, don’t worry, Hofmann plans to resolve the issue.

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Byte launched last Friday, Jan. 24 as essentially the 2.0 version of the much-beloved Vine. The app lets users film and upload looping six-second videos. It’s expected to be a solid competitor to the massive TikTok app due to the much smaller length of time that creators have to pack their video with content.

Another thing that is expected to set Byte apart from competitors will be its ease in helping creators monetize their content. When asked if Byte would offer ad revenue sharing, tipping, or other options to partners, Hofmann told Tech Crunch that, “We’re looking at all of those, but we’ll be starting with a revenue share + supplementing with our own funds. We’ll have more details about exactly how the pilot program will work soon.”

So, Byte seems poised to become a major player in the video space. There has just been one problem —spam. Users that jumped on the app early are trying to increase their follower count by creating bots to spam the comment sections on posts asking for followers. This spam is making users uncomfortable.

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In a community forum post, Hofmann addresses the issues with the app and explains what they plan to do to fix them.

“I wanted to post an update and make it clear that we’re aware of the issues with comment spam and more widely with certain types of comments,” Hofmann says. “This is our top priority and we’re working very hard to address it. It should be noticeably better than it was 24 hours ago and should continue to improve over the next little while.”

“In the medium term, we’ll be making more dramatic changes to comments including a) the ability to like comments, and b) the abilities to block/filter/limit commenting.”

“We are also ramping up on video moderation and you should see improvements there very soon.”

“Once things stabilize, we’ll be back to focusing on new features, including new discovery and creation features. And we’ll also be sharing some details on the pilot version of our partner program very soon.”

Hofman also took to Twitter to jokingly acknowledge the issue.

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Currently, users see the top 1,000 most popular posts in their feeds. But, Hofmann says that should change in the near future. He plans to give users a more accessible experience in personalizing their feeds.

“Your Mix — which is currently an experimental feed — will be receiving a large upgrade a little bit after launch,” Hofmann writes. “This feed will utilize machine learning and act as a personalized recommendation feed designed specifically for you. you’ll also be able to subscribe directly to channels to more notably incorporate them into Your Mix. we’ll share more details about this second iteration of the feed once it’s ready to test.”

So, Hofmann and his team at Byte are aware of the issues regarding spam and all things plaguing the app. We should expect them to be fixed very soon.

Tell us what you think of Byte in the comments below!

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