Instagram today unveiled a chic cure to
capturing and sharing videos through its iOS
and Android mobile apps , one that will no
doubt give Twitter pause as to what it wants to
do next with Vine.
Called Video on Instagram, the feature is more
nuanced than its GIF-y counterpart. The Twitter-
owned, 6-second video taking Vine has its
merits, but Instagram's take on video comes
packing a few more features and lacking loops.
In videos lasting up to 15 seconds and no less
than three, users can apply one of 13 filters,
pick a cover photo and erase the last clip they
take. Those extra nine seconds touch on what
CEO and Co-Founder Kevin Systrom referred to
as the Goldilocks moment: Not too short, not
too long.
In a way, he's right, but at the end of the day
there's only so much you can do with 15
seconds. On the flip side, there's also too much
you can do, so whether Instagram has really hit
on the social cinema sweet spot will be subject
to the test of time and users' patience.
How it works
Available in version 4.0.0, Video on Instagram
only captures video on devices running Jelly
Bean 4.1 and up, though any device can view
the videos. iOS 5 and higher is required to take
videos with an Apple product. Videos are also
viewable on desktop.
Recording jumps off from the same block as
taking a picture. Users hit the Instagram icon
on the bottom of their screen, heading into the
camera. However, now to the right of the blue
camera button is a video camera icon. Clicking
on this will take you to video mode, and a red
button replaces the sapphire of simple image
capture.
From here, users need just hold down the red
dot to start recording, lifting their finger off
when they want to stop. You can do this as
many times as you like to create a video made
up of as many clips, of any length, that you
want. Lines demarcate where one clip ends and
another begins, something Vine doesn't do.
Also unlike Vine, Instagram will let you erase
the last clip you took. There's an "X" icon to the
left of the record button that, when pressed,
will turn red. A trashcan replaces the "X" and a
press deletes the part you want to chuck.
After recording, users click the green Next
button to get to another Insta-only feature:
filters.
You can switch between filters as your video
plays, or view the entire roll through one lens.
The filters range from Stinson to Moon to Maven,
and while you may struggle to explain what is
actually different between each and every one,
some do add a heightened cinematic quality to
what could be a very mundane video of you
talking to your dog (not that we recorded such a
thing).
Some photo-specific manipulations like flipping
are gone, but we didn't miss them as we
recorded today. We have no doubt Instagram
has more filters and effects planned as time
goes on, but 13 filters is plenty to start.
After hitting another Next button, users can
choose a cover frame, or a shot from the video
they want posted as its public face. The process
involves literally flipbooking through each shot
until finding the best/most interesting/whatever
image you want your followers to see. Put
another way, you're not stuck with a
disorienting, out-of-context first frame plastered
on your profile, news feed and social networks.
One final Next button will take you to the Share
area, where you can add a caption choose a
Photo Map, and pick to post on Facebook,
Twitter, Tumblr or send via email. There's also a
Foursquare button, but it wasn't functioning for
us. We'll look into it and provide an update
when we know what its deal is.
Once in the Instagram news feed, videos are
marked with a video camera icon to show they're
not static images. You can press them to play,
but if you linger over a video long enough (a
matter of a second or two) the video will
automatically start playing, just like in Vine.
Scrolling away causes the video to stop.
As we mentioned earlier, Instagram videos don't
loop like Vines but instead stop completely
until you press play again. It actually felt like
going from a tea party to a playground whenever
we switched from Instagram to Vine.
Cinema
One feature unique to iOS but that we were
told "the team" is working to bring to Android is
called Cinema, an image stabilization feature
that's supposed to eliminate excess movement
in your videos.
From the way Systrom told it, Cinema is a highly
involved piece of technology that video
scientists helped develop, yet while we noticed
less instability in our videos, it's not the all-in-
one fix it Instagram talked it up to be.
Shakiness is noticeably reduced when it's on, to
be sure, but not so much that we would
completely miss it if it were off.
Cinema is automatically on, however, so you may
never take an un-Cinematic iOS photo again.
Oddly enough, the Cinema icon (basically a
camera with lines to express movement) didn't
come up when we tested Video on Instagram at
home.
Very early verdict
We truly enjoyed using Video on Instagram. It
was, simply put, fun.
All the tools are there to make what amounts to
a mini movie, especially with the ability to end
a clip and jump to another scene, throwing a
little more creativity in with the addition of a
filter. Vine has the first part, but there's a
sense of more control in Instagram's version.
We experienced no lag times with Video on
Instagram, by the way, whereas it took 30
seconds or more for Vine to render a video. It
may be a case of the hardware we were using,
but our buffer times were almost non-existent
on Instagram.
As Systrom put it, the company didn't want to
introduce a complex editing interface, and
though it has more steps and more whistles
than Vine, it really is as easy as photo editing
tools come.
Vine is, at its root, elementary: record the video,
caption the video, post the video. Though
rudimentary, Vine has amassed 13 million users
on iOS alone since launch, so it's certainly
striking a cord for people.
People are making some remarkably creative and
charming videos in six seconds, and Vine has
promised to unveil new features very soon.
Whether they'll rival what Instagram has
brought forth, we'll wait and see, but Vine has
some serious competition for amateur
videographers out there.
