Move Over Vine, Instagram Launches 15 Second Video Feature

Nothing like a little friendly social media competition. By now, most of you have heard of Vine, a social media app that lets users create and share six-second videos by pressing and holding your finger down on the screen. Even though videos are limited to six seconds, you can start and stop recording as many times as you’d like during that time to include several different scenes. [Editor’s note: I’m on Vine and folk are putting on full fledge stage plays, commercials and auditioning. God bless y’all!] This week, we learned that Instagram will not be left behind on the video train. On Thursday morning, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom officially introduced the rumored video functionality to an audience in San Francisco on Thursday. So what’s the difference between Vine’s video and Instagram’s? Glad you asked! Instagram’s video:

——-> Is 15 seconds.

——-> It will support 13 custom filters just for video. Users can edit the frames of their videos to remove certain segments of the footage.

——-> There will be a function called ‘Cinema’, a mode that acts as a way to stabilize footage.

——-> Users can also choose a cover photo for their videos, which will appear in the stream as a regular photo.

Here’s the personal message (via blog post) from Instagram’s co-founder:

Over the past two and a half years, Instagram has become a community where you can capture and share the world’s moments simply and beautifully. Some moments, however, need more than a static image to come to life. Until now these stories have been missing from Instagram. Today, we’re thrilled to introduce Video on Instagram and bring you another way to share your stories. When you go to take a photo on Instagram, you’ll now see a movie camera icon. Tap it to enter video mode, where you can take up to fifteen seconds of video through the Instagram camera.

You’ll also find that we’ve added thirteen filters built specifically for video so you can keep sharing beautiful content on Instagram. When you post a video, you’ll also be able to select your favorite scene from what you’ve recorded as your cover image so your videos are beautiful even when they’re not playing. We’re excited to see what the community will bring to video, whether it’s your local cafe showing you just how they made your latte art this morning or an Instagrammer on the other side of the world taking you on a tour of their city, a mother sharing her joys in parenting as her children laugh and play or your favorite athlete taking youbehind the scenes. So what does this mean for your content? Nothing’s different from photos. We’re still committed to making sure you have control over all of your content. Only the people who you let see your photos will be able to see your videos. And as with photos, you own your videos. You can learn more about Video on Instagram—including our new Cinema feature—by visiting the Instagram Help Center. We can’t wait to see what you’ll create. Kevin Systrom. Co-founder, Instagram

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