We’re at Facebook HQ in Menlo Park where Video on Instagram was just announced. The name is pretty self-explanatory, but here are the details that make this news interesting: Instagram for video allows users to snap short clips and combine them into a total video experience that is 15 seconds long at most. You can add filters developed for this particular application and post it on Instagram. “Why 15 seconds” one may ask? Instagram co-founder says that it is simply an artistic decision.
The decision of using a 15 seconds maximum length per clip has been taken to keep things simple and focus on a special moment. This is not meant to be a replacement of YouTube, this is Instagram and those movies should really feel like photos that come alive. Once the videos have been uploaded, Instagram will use an advanced image stabilization that doesn’t seem to “crop” the footage, and so far the demos look great. It’s probably the number one problem with mobile videos, so it’s nice to see that Instagram has addressed it.
The app itself is very easy to use, and it looks like there’s very little friction in the process of recording, editing and posting the videos. We’ll have to see how this work in the real-world, but right now, it looks very promising.
Other than using the video format, this looks very much like the regular Instagram. The videos show up just like photos in the feed and the overall look and feel of Instagram apps (Android, iOS, Web) did not change. All the interaction with Facebook remained the same.
When asked about “who owns the videos”, Instagram was very clear: these are users’ videos and Instagram does not own them, nor will they use it without the user’s consent.
At the moment, videos have to be recorded and uploaded from the Instagram app, and it’s not possible to upload videos from disk (again, this is not a YouTube or Facebook video), but the Instagram team didn’t rule this option out either. Right now, they are focused on letting users “share the moment”. Instagram for video is rolling out worldwide. What do you think?
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