Making velfies or video selfies is the new tech trend

It's true - people across the world are literally going crazy posting selfies online, documenting almost every expression, emotion, meal of their lives. Now, as if the selfie was not enough to share, in comes the velfie.

According to the Urban Dictionary, a Velfie means a video selfie - a video of the individual recorded himself/herself. Imagine a video of that great place you're at, the food you're eating and the people you're with.

Once the video is clicked, you can share it with the world using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms. The bug has bitten everybody, it seems, whether it is that geeky husband or the average student in college. Velfies are taking over. Here's how you could, take the perfect selfie, too.

VINE
Vine lets you create a six-second video that loops endlessly. The video is called a Vine and can be embedded into your website, shared on social networks. The app lets you create your own Vines, post comments on it and build a social network of people who love watching your Vines.

This app is free and you can use your Twitter account to login, or setup new Vine account for free. You can also create a private account and this will let you share your content only with people you choose. Shoot up the app and it is pretty simple then on, there is a Home Button that takes you to sections titled Explore/Activity/ Profile/Message, a movie camera button that is used for recording, and a Banner to find your friends or other Vine Makers to follow. Press the Record button and you have six seconds to become a celebrity, shoot it, upload it and share it, the video plays back in loops. In case you want to see other vines and find the small screen of your smartphone too complex to browse around, you can head on to https://vine.co to look for videos.

The drawback with Vine is that it requires you to sign in with a new ID or a Twitter ID. It would have been great to be able to log in from one's Facebook account, too.
And, of course, the narcissists will wonder - are six seconds enough?

INSTAGRAM
Cashing in on the fact that six seconds can never be enough to make a point, Instagram came out with its glorious 15 second editable video functionality. To start off, you simply have to download the latest version on your iPhone or Android device, No Windows phone version is available right now. Just in case you have been using Instagram to click your selfies, you can now look at the Video Section. A Tap on the Video camera and you are ready to record what you want, and share your Velfies.

Instagram ensures that taking and posting Videos has literally become a kid's task. The videos don't have to be shot at one go, lift your finger from the button and the recording stops until you tap the button again. This makes it easier to edit the video while you are taking it and filling it with only useful portions of the whole event. You can even delete the last clip in the series in case you feel that it was not good enough, without effecting the rest of the video. Unlike Vine, which made shaky videos if you were on the move, Instagram has a ‘Cinema' feature that stabilises the video, giving you a great video even while you are walking or running. Here also, you can switch between the front and the rear camera while shooting, tag users in the video, and upload and share the videos.

In the typical Instagram style, this app has provided 13 filters, specifically designed keeping videos in mind. So you can edit your video, make it look like it is out of a different century, change the colour saturation completely or simply add a special something, before you post the video. The edited videos can then be shared on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr and Foursquare or simply be emailed to a friend.

A big drawback with Instagram videos is that they cannot be muted and unlike Vine, the videos cannot be embedded via a desktop. But other than that, Instagram manages to produce great square videos, which are stable and, of course, editable to your liking.

YouTube
One is never satisfied with anything they have, so how can 15 seconds satisfy you. At times when you want to post a complete experience, like your Bungee jumping on your last holiday, you need to make longer videos and neither of these Apps are enough at that time. You Tube is your answer to posting videos, which are longer or for the stuff that you need to share with the world at large.

To start off, you simply create an account by filling out the form or link your Gmail account to create a new YouTube account. Once you have logged in, you'll be presented with two options, ‘Upload Video' and ‘Record from Webcam'. All you have to do now is select the video you want to upload from your database and it will start uploading the video. Once the video is uploaded, it will be available in the list of "My Videos" and is ready for you to share with various sharing options.

The Velfies once uploaded, can be easily embedded on your website, you can customise the size of the video on the page and even change the frame colours. One can easily set up their own YouTube channel, which provides a landing page for your videos, favourites and subscriptions. While uploading Velfies to YouTube, ensure that you set the "Privacy Settings".

The drop down menu includes Private / Unlisted / Public. A Private video can only be seen by you and the users you select by linking your channel with Google+. An Unlisted video can only be viewed by people who have the link to the video, so to share this video, you just share the link with the people you'd like to have access to it. But the drawback being that anybody who has this link can place the video on a play list and make it public. A Public video is open to all and can be searched and viewed by anybody. The downside of a YouTube video is that it will usually show an Ad either at the start of your video or below your Video, thus not giving you the best experience, but if it is a longer video you want, YouTube is the way to go.