Video on Instagram

Sigh...

Instagram talks a good game, but I find this to be more unimaginative dreck. Look, I get it, you need to clone Vine to stay competitive, but it's not new or a re-imagining of the video paradigm.

Most of these social startups promise unique experiences based on new forms of social interaction, but really only deliver more ways to watch cats dance on the internet.

Bring on the hardcore technology like better Ethernet Switching, Less Apps please.

Maybe this is me projecting, but I feel like it's way more difficult to create a good video than it is to create a good photograph. I see lots of great images on Instagram and a lot of terrible videos on Vine. I hope my Instagram feed doesn't fill up with terrible videos.

Summary:

15 seconds of video with 13 custom filters

You can choose the cover frame.

Available for Android/iOS.

Can view on web as well.

New feature - 'Cinema' - cinematic stabilisation.

So, expectedly, we will hear a lot of criticism that Instagram is copying Vine. In some ways, it is - but with its own spin and one that I think will emphasize beauty in video, much like it has done with photos and whereas I see Vine personally as one that lets you share moments as they are or some kind of quirky videos. Technologically, the difference is arbitrary (filters vs. no filters) but, as the saying goes: the medium is the message - and Instagram has created a community based on those filters - and that community will invariably transform the new technology into something extraordinary.

What I'm interested in is what will happen to Vine. Vine was meant to be this great sharing solution for moments recorded in video. It had its moment when it first launched, then dipped in popularity, and only recently started getting popular again. Its use has not skyrocketed (I could be wrong). My belief is that it's because taking a good video is hard, harder I think, than taking a good picture.

So, it's likely that Instagram will able to bullishly leverage its existing and talented user base to take full advantage of the video feature. What about the majority? I'm worried that most Instagram users won't use the feature as actively because they are too intimidated. I mean I looked at the cafe latte example and it was practically cinematic. Is the Average Joe expected to take a video like that?

I think this is the right step for Instagram but I'm not sure whether they've solved the essential problem in sharing these video moments.

I swear every single product launch or redesign announcement these days uses the word beautiful.

I wonder how Vine will fight back. Will they now also include pictures ? ;)

Anyways, I feel I'm being played by all the media attention that this got. Since when an app update gets all this attention ? Are we getting so superficial that this stuff really gets so many spotlights ?

It's not even a new app or anything disruptive, it's just Vine on Instagram with edition mode.

Not actually seeing v4.0 available in the Google Play store. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instagram....)

EDIT:

Now the Play Store page is saying "CURRENT VERSION: Varies with device"

I haven't seen that before. It's not letting me install it on my Galaxy Nexus as of yet. Is there a list of devices that the latest version of Instagram works on?

Edit 2:

Looking at Instagram in the Play Store app on my phone, the description is saying that it's supported on devices with Jellybean (4.1) and above. My Galaxy Nexus is rooted, and I'm running a custom ROM of 4.2.2.... but it is still not allowing me to install v4.0 of Instagram. Strange.

I think this will take over Vine. People are already on Instagram for photos but now they won't have to open up another app for videos.

CEO spouts off a lot of words to say "we're cloning Vine"

Cinema stabilization. What utter bullshit. Apple created this class in the iOS SDK (AVCaptureConnection Class) that enables stabilization.

Do you think for a second that IG/FB devs sat there writing an image stabilization algorithm? No chance.

Instagram going video is the RIGHT MOVE for the product, 100% - but, it's just another regurgitated copy of another app, which was a copy of another app, and so goes the cycle of bullshit.

Funny. That introduction video is on Vimeo.

I think people are missing the point here if we're judging Instagram on the grounds of innovation alone. What's exciting about this is that Vine seems to be the only startup that got the formula of "Instagram for video" right, and now we're seeing them being surprise-attacked by a relatively unexpected competitor that has a far bigger user base and launches on Android and iOS at the same time. I don't even think there are that many people interested in crafting short video clips using these apps so I'm personally thrilled how Vine's going to thrive now that the ball's in their court. There's a lot to be learned from this developing story if you're an entrepreneur.

I don't mind that Instagram has video now, because that does seem logical for them to add. However, they really need to make videos separate from the pictures somehow. Either by having separate feeds for video content and the classic picture feed or a way to filter by type in the feed.

It is nice that there is an option for videos to not play automatically, but I would still rather just not see videos all together.

I can tell you now that there is going to be a lot of "unfollowing" in the near future with this new feature.

Aside from the actual product announcement... I'm interested to see that they created an Android and iOS version at the same time. For the past several years, Android apps were typically pushed off a month (or years, in Instagram's case).

I wonder if their Android app drove much of their adoption in the past year or so, and as such, they decided to make sure they could launch feature-complete apps on both platforms on day one?

If so - will Android finally start getting apps on pace with iOS?

I'm not crazy about this. Will videos just automatically appear in my feed- and start playing? If they play with the volume up that's going to get irritating (and bandwidth heavy).

My reaction in general is the same as the tagging feature- I'd prefer it didn't have it, as I like Instagram as a service for almost taking abstract photos (landscapes, patterns) than of me and my friends on nights out. But I also realise that it is inevitable, what with them being owned by Facebook.

We may have finally found the "instagram for video".

Personally I like the limited "editing" capabilities of vine, where you hold a button and "fill up" part of the 6 seconds of video. It creates some really interesting possibilities that this simply won't have.

This does have filters but I don't think that'll make up for it

'Cinema' seems like it is going to be a game changer

Tried it this morning whilst waiting for my train to arrive.

#1: Wasn't obvious that you had to press and hold to record, and removing your finger from the record button pauses the recording. #2: The app seems to crash a fair bit. And when it crashes, your video disappears. Basically, I finished recording, and was trying to select a location.

It'd be a better experience if videos that you haven't posted yet are saved somewhere (ie: camera roll) so you can post it later.

To be honest, video is not something I'm going to be doing a lot of. Maybe once or twice, here and there (if I even remember it's there).

When I'm sitting on the subway and bored, I love to flick through Instagram. Over the years, we got cinemagram and vine and they were fun but when zooming between stations they were so slow to load. Instagram, though, was pretty quick and offered me quite a bit to look at.

I worry that, with video, Instagram will now be slow to load. I can't set aside time for "Instagram surfing"; it was a fun distraction during otherwise boring times—check in with your friends while you are stuck somewhere else.

I always felt video wasn't ready for prime time.

Downloaded it, the interface actually feels very nice. I like the ability to remove the last recorded section from your video and that you can choose a cover image.

Seems like an improvement. Adding video to their app doesn't feel like a clone (though it is) but a logical extension and I am sure many people will be happy to use this. It's unfortunate that twitter still won't allow for previews of these items.

I know vine is not going anywhere but this puts them in a weird spot.

I like this. Vine is great but never had the same browsing experience as Instagram. I'd much rather scroll through Instagram than Vine. Now I have even more reason to do so.

I'm curious about how this works in their existing API. Does it get dumped into the list of photos for an account, or is there a separate videos API coming?

They should have not sold to Facebook, they had cracked social on mobile. The introduction of video just proves this point even more, as they built out their feature stack over the years, they would have slowly made facebook less relevant. Instagram is seen as cool on mobile as facebook was cool on the desktop. If Zuckerburg had started instagram, he would not have sold it.

Vine ripoff, Vine clone, what poor Vine will do...

WTF? There was no innovation in Vine at all. In fact, its more like Vine made a clone of Instagram in the first place. Videos on Instagram is just a logical improvement, slow evolution of the service. Nobody complains that Facebook allows to upload videos, and that it's trying to clone youtube after all.

I actually really enjoyed their introduction video, I feel like it captured the human emotion aspect well.

Kudos to you Facebook.

Do the brackets in the text mean they weren't quite finished editing before it got published? Or was that on purpose?

The update hasn't reached the server around me, so I can't verify - are the filters really just the photo filters but on video? If so, I'm massively disappointed - they have a whole new dimension of data and they're doing nothing with it!

Yes, video filters are hard. That makes them worth doing.

If they were able to achieve better performance than Vine on Android (said another way: if it's usable), then they could make headway in the Android market share. I hope that's the case, because I eventually uninstalled Vine on my Galaxy Nexus because performance was inconsistent... and usually terrible.

With the proliferation of video, I wonder if Facebook will eventually try and identify products in videos and let advertisers create video spots that merge clips of your friends videos into sponsored posts. Imagine watching a short clip of your friend drinking a Coke in a sponsored post.

I just tried it and it's actually a pretty great user experience. Much nicer than Vine, IMO.

It would be a better step for instagram if they would bring adding caption capability to android apps. They have this on ios and other apps use instagram as photo sharing social platform because of tags yet android developers has no such chance.

I love that "What Happened to Innovation?" is right below this post right now...

For some, not all, it will matter that Twitter will still not integrate this into their site/apps. Twitter owns Vine, so there is likely little or no incentive for them to also support Instagram.

After watching a few Instagram-filmed videos on the web, videos on Instagram are much lower quality than those taken with Vine, likely to compensate for the 2.5x-increased length.

Mildly off topic: Does anyone know where the shot of the gondolas headed to the roller coaster was taken?

The video introducing video on Instagram is on Vimeo.

That speaks volumes about this service.

Anyone on iOS 7 get the update?

Can you embed Instagram videos the same way you can with videos from Vine?

Cinema stabilisation does not work on iPhone 4S.

Vine ripoff?

Vine + filters + 9 seconds

So the behemoth copies features from a small startup. Bastards.

answer to vine ?

RIP Vine

The world was sorely missing tiny videos with filters. I think Instagram+Facebook is a great example of colo-fucking-ssal waste of math and engineering talent.

Instagram just made Vine irrelevant.

IRONY

Use "Viemo" to promote your video platform :)