Byte Already Has A Bit Of A Spam Bot Problem

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It’s only been a few days since the official launch of byte, and users are complaining about spambots on the video-sharing app.

After a long wait, Vine’s successor – an app called byte – finally came out of beta late last week and has been generating a lot of traction. Within the first few days of opening up to everyone, byte has even overtaken TikTok at the top of Apple’s App Store in the United States. Thousands of users looking for a TikTok alternative have been flocking to the app, but many have started complaining about a spam bot issue – and specifically about spam comments on their videos.

In a post over the weekend titled “Taking out the garbage” Dom Hofmann – founder of byte, and previously co-founder of the now-defunct Vine – addressed this issue (and others) explaining “we’re aware of the issues with comment spam and more widely with certain types of comments. This is our top priority and we’re working very hard to address it.”

He also assured users that the situation “should be noticeably better” than the first 24 hours of the app being live, and “should continue to improve over the next little while.” By “little while,” Hofmann is most probably referring to the next few weeks or even months because, in the meantime, the app will roll out two “dramatic changes to comments.”

still working on some important issues, but the first 36 hours of byte have been awesome. here's a note about what we're working on https://t.co/oHwhpyfvjO pic.twitter.com/HduipnC0XN
— dom hofmann (@dhof) January 26, 2020

According to Hofmann’s post, the first is the ability to like comments, and the second is the ability to block, filter, or limit commenting on posts. Furthermore, the team will also be increasing video moderation, and users “should see improvements there very soon.”

As soon as the situation improves, though, Hofmann promises that new features are coming soon. These include “new discovery and creation features” and more details on byte’s pilot partner program to pay creators to create content on the platform.

.@dhof, founder of Vine and @byte_app promises to fix the latter’s bot problem: “good morning, let’s squash some spam bots”

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Byte is an app very similar to Vine, allowing users to post six-second looping videos. Vine is the very popular app that Twitter acquired and then shut down a few years ago, leaving many creators in the lurch. Byte is currently riding on the popularity of its predecessor and a wave of nostalgia, to generate growth in a very crowded space that is being increasingly dominated by TikTok, which has grown exponentially in the last year.