Instagram Launches Boomerang, A Standalone App For 1-Second Looping Video

App creates GIF-like videos for playful posting.

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Looking for a way to liven up your Instagram posts? Meet Boomerang, a new video app for creating looping, GIF-like clips.

The app, launched on iOS and Android by Instagram today, takes a one-second burst of five photos and stitches them together in a video that plays forward and backward in a loop. The effect allows for playful creativity, as the Instagram blog post notes:

Capture a friend jumping off a diving board, defying physics as she flies back and forth through the air. Transform an ordinary selfie with your friends into a funny video. Get that exact moment your friend blows out his birthday candles, then watch them come back to life again and again.

The app, which doesn’t require an Instagram account like other Instagram standalone apps Hyperlapse and Layout, couldn’t be simpler. After you open it, one button triggers the photo burst; the resulting video can be shared on Instagram or Facebook or other social networks. The videos are saved to your camera roll, so they can also be shared later.


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About the author

Martin Beck
Contributor
Martin Beck was Third Door Media's Social Media Reporter from March 2014 through December 2015.

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