Yesterday Facebook announced that its popular photo-sharing app Instagram will soon give it’s users the ability to shoot 15-second video clips and share them with the world. So where did they get this idea? Who knows whether they’re already thinking about it but Facebook no doubt felt pressure from Twitter’s wildly successful video app, Vine.
Vine, which was bought by Twitter in 2012, is a video app that allows users to record 6 seconds of video simply by touching the screen. One of the coolest features is that when you let go it stops recording – when you touch the screen again it starts – giving users the ability to create stop motion type videos and stitch together clips of video into a 6-second mini-movie.
Instagram’s new video feature is reported to allow 15-seconds of video, but with slightly different capabilities. First, it will not auto-loop as Vine does. This might be a nice change from my Vine feed in which I hear the repetitive, sometimes creepy voices of “Viner’s” that I am following, over and over. It will also give you the option to turn auto-play off altogether – eliminating the risk of being forced to watch your friends cat “purr” in 10 different tones.
It is unsure if the Instagram video feature will allow stitching together multiple clips, as Vine does, but we can assume it will. And yes, creative Instagrammers can still add an array of filters to their videos as they do for their still images.
Happy sharing!
