Instant messengers are making quite a buzz these days, especially after one IM app was sold to Facebook for $16 billion. Today, three apps have received updates that give them more functionality to better compete with other apps in the rapidly growing and competitive IM arena.

FACEBOOK MESSENGER FOR ANDROID

Aside from its recently purchased WhatsApp, the social networking giant also has its own instant messaging for smartphones. This week, the company release version 4.0 of Facebook Messenger for Android that now allows users to create specific groups from their contacts and store them in a dedicated tab within the app.

Moreover, the app will let users pin the group into their Android home screen (represented by a floating chat head), giving them quick access whenever they need to send message to members of the group.

SAMSUNG CHATON

Samsung has also given new features to its ChatOn instant messaging app. After the update, users will be able to transfer media up to 1GB and show their location on Foursquare via Glympse.

The app will also be able to recall instant messages even if the recipient has already read the message. This should allow users to correct messages that were sent prematurely or those that were sent in error to the wrong person. However, this feature will only work with one-to-one chats and not on group chats.

VINE VIDEOS

Lastly, we have Instagram’s Vine Video clip app which received an update that now lets users send instant messages or videos to their contacts whether or not they have the app installed on their devices.

The app’s closes competitor – Instagram has had the feature since December of last year.

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Yahoo might be joining the video-sharing battle with Facebook’s Instagram and Twitter’s Vine with its recent acquisition of Qwiki, an iOS app that takes photos, music and clips and turns them into short videos.

According to a report by AllThingsD, the deal is said to have cost somewhere between 40 and 50 million dollars. However, unlike other Yahoo acquisitions, Qwiki will reportedly stay in the App store and continue to be supported. Qwiki’s team will then be relocated into Yahoo’s New York City office which is just a few miles for the company’s current office.

Although the app is very similar to what other video-centric app does, its CEO and co-founder Doug Imbruce said in a statement last February that they want Qwiki to be known not as a video-sharing app but more of a story-telling app. But with Yahoo’s acquisition, will Qwiki still push for this vision or will it be Sunnyvale company’s answer to Vine and Instagram? What do you think?

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Video on Instagram might have temporarily stolen the limelight from Vine these past few weeks, but the Twitter-owned video sharing app is back with a vengeance as it launches its biggest update since its launch in January.

The update aims to bring functionality that further enhances the app in terms of its usability and ability to connect people with one another. In terms of usability, the update brings a set of camera tools including a camera grid, focus capability and ghost tools that help viners shoot videos easier.

Vine is also adding 15 new channels where viners can submit their posts to or browse from the Explore screen. Each of these channels has their own theme and Popular feed which is a great way to get discovered on the network. There’s also an “On the Rise” section where people can check out other viners who are gaining popularity in Vine.

The update will now also allow users to easily “re-vine” their videos with a single tap on a button. Last but definitely not the least, the Vine app will now have an option to allow users protect their posts. People who want a little privacy in their account can now choose to only share videos to the people they are connected to.

Unfortunately, the 6-second time limit for capturing videos is still in place and there are still no in-house editing options available for the app. The update is now available to iOS users with the Android update to follow shortly after.

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Instagram announced today a new feature called “Video on Instagram” at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park in California. And as the name implies, the feature will focus on capturing and sharing videos the same way Instagram does with photos.

Unlike its closest competitor and current service to beat when it comes to video sharing – Vine, Video on Instagram lets people create 15-second videos to share on the service. Moreover, in true Instagram tradition, simple editing capabilities including 131 new filters specifically designed for video is thrown in the mix.

“What we did to photos, we just did to video” – Kevin Systrom.

According to Instagram’s Kevin Systrom, the decision to use 15-second videos instead of the usual six seconds was more of a creative choice and stresses that he is not necessarily saying that one is better than the other.

This new features is already available to all Instagram users on iOS and Android and will certainly disrupt the existing market for video capture and sharing services especially with Instagram’s large user base. According to its CEO Kevin Systrom, Instagram has approximately 130 million active monthly users, who have shared 16 billion photos to date.

In any case, it’s quite interesting how Video on Instagram would affect Vine’s performance and adoption. At present, Vine is ranked 14^th on Apple’s App store while Instagram sits at the 30^th spot. However, the reverse is true when it comes to Google Play with Instagram occupying the 6^th position for top free apps, while Vine is nowhere near the 100^th spot.

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Twitter’s Vine app is now officially on Android a mere 5 months after its acquisition back in October of last year. The app which was initially available only to iOS enables its users to create and post 6-second video clips which can then be shared and embedded on other social networking sites like Twitter.

The company which was founded by Dom Hofmann and Rus Yusupov in June of last year was first released on January 24, 2013 as a free iOS app for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Since then, the app has acquired around 13 million users on iOS. The app functions similar to Instagram but instead showcases short video clips instead of filtered photos.

The Android version of the app is now available on Google Play for users with Android 4.0 devices and up. At present the current version of the app for both iOS and Android are not yet full-featured but Vine said that the app will soon receive updates that will enable features such as access to front-facing camera, push notifications, introduction of hashtag and mentions as well as search functionality for people and tags.

On the plus side, Android users are a little better off than iOS users on Vine as the Android version of the app support video zooming. According to Vine, this feature was easily incorporated into the app due to Android’s open-source nature as opposed to Apple’s restricted environment.

The app is now available on Google Play for free. You can download the app using the link below.

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