Twitter has said that users of its Vine video app are now able to send their contacts private videos and other messages.  This is a clear indication that they are stepping up competition with Facebook in the mobile-messaging market.
The new introduction means that Twitter and Facebook both now offer multiple ways for their users to chat without using a basic text-messaging feature. Twitter, which also allows users to directly message one another through its main smartphone app, is adding the capacity to Vine only months after Facebook’s Instagram app has made it possible for people to do the same. Facebook has also separate Messenger software and they have already agreed to buy messaging service WhatsApp back in February 2014 for a cost of $19 billion.

The increase in use of messaging apps to communicate rather than paying for text messages, is becoming more and more commonplace, thereby making the companies that provide the service more valuable.
Rakuten has announced a deal to buy Viber Media Inc. for $900 million in back February and Snapchat the popular application for sending messages which disappear, rejected a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook only last year.
“From Vine’s early days, we recognized that there was a growing desire and need for private messaging on Vine…We’ve watched the community come up with some clever ways to send videos to their friends as we’ve been working on this solution.”  Twitter said in a recent blog post.
The new feature from Twitter allows Vine users to send their short videos to friends even if they are not using the appl, the company has said. Videos can also sent to multiple people, as well as those they aren’t friends with.