Instagram Gets Video With Filters
Those selfies and food photos in your Instagram feed might soon be a little less stationary. Starting today, the Facebook-owned service will be adding video features to its popular iPhone and Android apps.
Video on Instagram gives the 130 million users of the app the ability to post short video clips that can be three to 15 seconds long. In contrast, Vine allows a maximum of six seconds of video.
The new feature opens a potential new revenue stream for Facebook, which paid a premium price to buy Instagram last year. But Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom insisted the product was not specifically designed to generate new business.
“This is driven by consumer demand, not by business need,” Systrom said during a news conference at Facebook headquarters. “I don’t think we designed it with any advertising in mind.”
In its iOS version, the tool also includes a brand-new image stabilization mode called “Cinema” to eliminate shakiness in videos.
Users will now hit the camera button and get a choice of a still camera or video camera option. Selecting the video option will bring up the usual viewfinder, and then, similar to Twitter’s Vine app, holding down the video icon will capture video. Releasing it will allow you to pause the video, readjust your shot and then start capturing again.
Within hours of the new feature being added to Instagram, video clips began streaming in from locales around the world including a fish market in Japan, a space memorial in Russia and a surfing haunt on the California coast.
