6 ms·

Video on Instagram

136 points by chrislloyd 13y ago

cuttooth 13y ago
CEO spouts off a lot of words to say "we're cloning Vine"
- mikek 13y ago
  Vine didn't invent mobile video.
  - jmathai 13y ago
    From the video it appears/appeared that the capture interface/method looked to be the same as vine. Not sure who else did that before Vine.
  - bdcravens 13y ago
    This isn't generic "mobile video". This is short video clips, pretty much the same as Vine is doing.
  - ladybro 13y ago
    While this is true, you can't deny that what this article is showing is almost exactly what was innovative about Vine. The short, hold-to-film, no edit clips originated with Twitter's product. That being said, I'm not excited about this update. I love Instagram, but mostly for it's simplicity; the number of vines on my Twitter feed worth watching is astonishingly low, and this will only produce, IMO, more content not worth watching.
- MaxScheiber 13y ago
  To be fair, it's really not like Instagram had never considered doing video up until Vine came out. Hell, I'm sure every high schooler had the idea of "Instagram for video"; it's a very accessible, logical progression from Instagram-style photos.
- 91bananas 13y ago
  Also to be fair, there would be no Vine without Instagram, it is almost an exact duplicate interface, with video instead of images.
tvladeck 13y ago
Do the brackets in the text mean they weren't quite finished editing before it got published? Or was that on purpose?
s3r3nity 13y ago
'Cinema' seems like it is going to be a game changer
- simondlr 13y ago
  That was incredible to see! EDIT: It's only for iPhone 4S and 5? http://help.instagram.com/261882563951635 http://help.instagram.com/261882563951635 (damnit)
joebeetee 13y ago
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.
- psbp 13y ago
  Cinema is only available on the iPhone 4S and 5.
  - nayefc 13y ago
    It does not work
- rozap 13y ago
  You forgot, "Beautiful". That's the most important part. Beautiful.
  - loceng 13y ago
    This is how you stroke the ego of users.
moskie 13y ago
Not actually seeing v4.0 available in the Google Play store. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instagram.android 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.
- kefs 13y ago
  Google Play now supports staged roll-outs, so it may not be available to everyone right away.
- dignati 13y ago
  It takes some time for an update to propagate trough Google's CDN. Usually 2-3 hours.
Ethan_Mick 13y ago
I actually really enjoyed their introduction video, I feel like it captured the human emotion aspect well. Kudos to you Facebook.
bvssatish 13y ago
IRONY Use "Viemo" to promote your video platform :)
gokhan 13y ago
Funny. That introduction video is on Vimeo.
- obilgic 13y ago
  Because It is longer than 15 seconds.
- film42 13y ago
  But player.vimeo.com, how long until someone uploads to youtube? UPDATE: It looks like it's back (kinda): https://vimeo.com/68765934 https://vimeo.com/68765934 UPDATE 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uehy21pHDW0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uehy21pHDW0
zachgersh 13y ago
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.
schiang 13y ago
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.
fletchowns 13y ago
I swear every single product launch or redesign announcement these days uses the word beautiful.
- morganwilde 13y ago
  Because it's BEAUTIFUL, duh, Captain Obvious! add a sarcastic voice to this message
- zachgersh 13y ago
  Today we are here to announce our new feature, it's called "Beautiful". Beautiful is the most...crap guys we didn't think through the naming of this feature very well.
- freehunter 13y ago
  Gone are the days of "It just works!" because, well, people expect that it will just work. All the major platforms, at their core, all work the same and all just work. The visual appearance is the differentiation now.
- acoleman616 13y ago
  To the point where it's becoming nearly meaningless...
- codereflection 13y ago
  I want more specific honesty in these announcements. Example: "Volvo — they're boxy but they're good."
  - joebeetee 13y ago
    "Be safe instead of sexy"
- ngoel36 13y ago
  It used to be pretty natural for me to use this in product announcements (along with other catchy words: 'innovative', 'game-changing', 'amazing', etc...). "Why not, I think it's beautiful, so will everybody else!!" My manager taught me that it was far, far better for my users to discover the beauty themselves. "Under promise, over deliver." Let the user get excited about the functionality - the most beautiful or easy to use products don't need to list 'beauty' as a feature.
phatbyte 13y ago
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.
- s3r3nity 13y ago
  Well the 'Cinema' feature is something brand new that Vine doesn't have -- stabilizing videos like this is mind boggling to me at least and should be interesting to see how it plays out.
  - yid 13y ago
    FWIW, Youtube has had this feature since May 2012, for videos considerably longer than a handful of seconds: http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2012/05/video-stabilization-on-youtube.html http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2012/05/video-stabilizati... EDIT: the demo video on that link above is pretty spectacular.
    - phatbyte 13y ago
      It's pretty damn impressive, much more impressive example than the one they showed for Instagram.
untog 13y ago
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.
- schiang 13y ago
  I just downloaded the app. Videos don't play automatically. You have to click the 'play' button. Doesn't look like it repeats once you play either.
  - psbp 13y ago
    User uploaded ones won't autoplay, but the video ads will
    - dzlobin 13y ago
      You've posted several times in this thread so far complaining about the ads, do you have a source? There aren't any video ads right now nor did they specify _anything_ about how they might work. The only thing they _did_ say, was that user content won't be used in ads.
      - psbp 13y ago
        Long-rumored. Releases like this are just bringing it closer. http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-s-video-ads-delayed-fall/242165/ http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-s-video-ads-delaye... "Based on how they were being positioned for the summer launch, video ads will appear to targeted users in their news feeds up to three times on the day they’re slotted and will begin silently playing when a user scrolls over them, according to source who heard Facebook’s pitch. Audio won’t be activated unless a user clicks on the 15-second ad, at which point it will restart and spread over the right- and left-hand rails of the page."
ceejayoz 13y ago
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?
- zachgersh 13y ago
  I am willing to bet it already works with their existing API. If you check out their API docs you will see they include a "type:" attribute (which has just been image thus far). http://instagram.com/developer/endpoints/users/ http://instagram.com/developer/endpoints/users/ They were already prepared for video.
minimaxir 13y ago
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.
josh2600 13y ago
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.
- psbp 13y ago
  This is just a clever way to get video ads integrated into the facebook stream. Relevant: http://adage.com/abstract?article_id=242165 http://adage.com/abstract?article_id=242165
  - andrewhillman 13y ago
    Not sure why people think this is about FB running ads. I highly doubt FB would consider pre-rolling an ad on a 15 second clip. Youtube is the king of pre-rolls... they probably have a min length requirement before they will insert a pre-roll. Ads don't make much sense on a 15 second clip.
    - psbp 13y ago
      RTA, it's about having 15-second ads.
      - lleims 13y ago
        I agree with this. This is a clever way of soon rolling video ads on your Facebook timeline. Audio could be disabled by default and the experience would feel less intrusive. Systrom specifically said that videos will post natively to the timeline. -- Q: Will videos post natively, on FB Timeline? A: Yes. You’ll be able to see videos right in your timeline.
    - ryguytilidie 13y ago
      I don't think people are talking about pre-rolls here, they're talking about FB using it to run video ads in your newsfeed.
gilesvangruisen 13y ago
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.
moskie 13y ago
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.
johnfowler 13y ago
Instagram just made Vine irrelevant.
- hxw 13y ago
  No.
tsurantino 13y ago
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.
- lotso 13y ago
  There are more shares from Vine on Twitter than Instagram. I'd say its use has skyrocketed.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - mef 13y ago
    Citation?
    - andrewhillman 13y ago
      http://marketingland.com/vine-passes-instagram-total-twitter-shares-47579 http://marketingland.com/vine-passes-instagram-total-twitter... But... they forgot to mention that Twitter was promoting Vine heavily during this time.
ing33k 13y ago
answer to vine ?
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- terabytest 13y ago
  To be honest I think Instagram is good at what it does and this move makes it look cheaper and greedy to invade markets it's not meant to be in.
terabytest 13y ago
Vine ripoff?
sergiotapia 13y ago
So the behemoth copies features from a small startup. Bastards.
johnrob 13y ago
We may have finally found the "instagram for video".
erroneousfunk 13y ago
I love that "What Happened to Innovation?" is right below this post right now...
UVB-76 13y ago
The video introducing video on Instagram is on Vimeo. That speaks volumes about this service.
- dignati 13y ago
  You didn't think that through, did you? It's longer than 15 seconds.
  - anigbrowl 13y ago
    Alternatively, Instagram didn't think their messaging through. 15 seconds is a long time.
  - zalthor 13y ago
    Isn't that the real problem? You're a company that says "here's 15 seconds to convey some information". Yet, you aren't able to convey the information you wanted to (i.e the ad for your service) in 15 seconds. I think they missed a trick with this ad.
minikites 13y ago
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.
- fxthea 13y ago
  Good point. Instagram's killer feature was that it made amateur photographer's photos look better, but the answer for video can't be just apply filters again, right? Could it be transitions (like how Vine has hard cuts in and out now)?
  - onedev 13y ago
    I think video's killer feature is the image stabilization. A large percentage of bad videos are because they're shaky as hell.
    - dakrisht 13y ago
      This is not a "killer feature" - Apple already includes a Class in iOS for video stabilization (AVCaptureConnection Class). This is just regurgitated marketing crap, as usual.
      - onedev 13y ago
        It's completely proprietary tech developed by a team of image processing specialists on the Instagram team. It does not use any standard iOS libraries in any way whatsoever.
        workbench 13y ago
        Because it can't due to Android interoperability. Seen as they removed real time filters from the iOS version to make it more like the Android version
    - 13y ago
volaski 13y ago
Anyone on iOS 7 get the update?
- ahc 13y ago
  yes, I'm on iOS 7 and it was auto updated for me
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
1st1 13y ago
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.
agscala 13y ago
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
- kennywinker 13y ago
  Have you tried instagram's video feature yet? It totally has that same thing. Only with this you can undo your last shot, instead of re-starting if you mess up. Undo is an improvement on the formula, not a corruption.
  - agscala 13y ago
    You're right, this is great
codereflection 13y ago
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.
mattquiros 13y ago
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.
- LAMike 13y ago
  Do you really believe this is a "surprise attack"? I'd like to hear more about Instagram being an unexpected competitor
mmanfrin 13y ago
Mildly off topic: Does anyone know where the shot of the gondolas headed to the roller coaster was taken?
archivator 13y ago
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.
- samstave 13y ago
  Can you elaborate on what you think they Gould be doing with this re dimension of data in video? Personally, I think everything around how Facebook does groups is broken. Get out of the single-vertical-column shackles.
  - archivator 13y ago
    Anything from light trails, fading shadows, cross-frame colour effects to stuff I can't even imagine! The possibilities are greatly expanded, if you stop thinking of video as lots-of-images-one-after-another.
hospadam 13y ago
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?
- dannyr 13y ago
  Recently, Foursquare & Tumblr released new features on Android first then followed by iOS weeks later.
  - diggan 13y ago
    Probably because you can update your app on Google Play instantly. On App Store, you'll have to go through the verification process for each update.
nashequilibrium 13y ago
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.
- gfodor 13y ago
  A billion dollars is a fuckload of money.
  - nashequilibrium 13y ago
    I would still settle for taking a company public. Also it was much less than a billion, but there was stock issued as well.
    - spiek 13y ago
      And, IIRC, it was worth a whole heck of a lot less (like $300 mil less) because of the Facebook IPO disaster.
      - gfodor 13y ago
        The gift of hindsight. Either way they made a mint.
    - gfodor 13y ago
      The deal wasn't a billion dollars or take a company public. The deal was a billion dollars, keep building the product, or say no and prepare to compete head-on with Facebook in an all-out war. I don't think any sane person would have taken the latter.
GuriK 13y ago
RIP Vine
hxw 13y ago
Can you embed Instagram videos the same way you can with videos from Vine?
bluetidepro 13y ago
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.
nayefc 13y ago
Cinema stabilisation does not work on iPhone 4S.
adregan 13y ago
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.
rogerchucker 13y ago
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.
dakrisht 13y ago
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.
rdouble 13y ago
I just tried it and it's actually a pretty great user experience. Much nicer than Vine, IMO.
undroid 13y ago
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.
calbear81 13y ago
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.
wluu 13y ago
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).
renownedmedia 13y ago
Vine + filters + 9 seconds

Video on Instagram

136 points by chrislloyd 13y ago

cuttooth 13y ago

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

mikek 13y ago
Vine didn't invent mobile video.
- jmathai 13y ago
  From the video it appears/appeared that the capture interface/method looked to be the same as vine. Not sure who else did that before Vine.
- bdcravens 13y ago
  This isn't generic "mobile video". This is short video clips, pretty much the same as Vine is doing.
- ladybro 13y ago
  While this is true, you can't deny that what this article is showing is almost exactly what was innovative about Vine. The short, hold-to-film, no edit clips originated with Twitter's product. That being said, I'm not excited about this update. I love Instagram, but mostly for it's simplicity; the number of vines on my Twitter feed worth watching is astonishingly low, and this will only produce, IMO, more content not worth watching.
MaxScheiber 13y ago
To be fair, it's really not like Instagram had never considered doing video up until Vine came out. Hell, I'm sure every high schooler had the idea of "Instagram for video"; it's a very accessible, logical progression from Instagram-style photos.
91bananas 13y ago
Also to be fair, there would be no Vine without Instagram, it is almost an exact duplicate interface, with video instead of images.

tvladeck 13y ago

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

s3r3nity 13y ago

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

simondlr 13y ago
That was incredible to see! EDIT: It's only for iPhone 4S and 5? http://help.instagram.com/261882563951635 http://help.instagram.com/261882563951635 (damnit)

joebeetee 13y ago

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.

psbp 13y ago
Cinema is only available on the iPhone 4S and 5.
- nayefc 13y ago
  It does not work
rozap 13y ago
You forgot, "Beautiful". That's the most important part. Beautiful.
- loceng 13y ago
  This is how you stroke the ego of users.

moskie 13y ago

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

kefs 13y ago
Google Play now supports staged roll-outs, so it may not be available to everyone right away.
dignati 13y ago
It takes some time for an update to propagate trough Google's CDN. Usually 2-3 hours.

Ethan_Mick 13y ago

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

bvssatish 13y ago

IRONY Use "Viemo" to promote your video platform :)

gokhan 13y ago

Funny. That introduction video is on Vimeo.

obilgic 13y ago
Because It is longer than 15 seconds.
film42 13y ago
But player.vimeo.com, how long until someone uploads to youtube? UPDATE: It looks like it's back (kinda): https://vimeo.com/68765934 https://vimeo.com/68765934 UPDATE 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uehy21pHDW0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uehy21pHDW0

zachgersh 13y ago

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.

schiang 13y ago

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.

fletchowns 13y ago

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

morganwilde 13y ago
Because it's BEAUTIFUL, duh, Captain Obvious! add a sarcastic voice to this message
zachgersh 13y ago
Today we are here to announce our new feature, it's called "Beautiful". Beautiful is the most...crap guys we didn't think through the naming of this feature very well.
freehunter 13y ago
Gone are the days of "It just works!" because, well, people expect that it will just work. All the major platforms, at their core, all work the same and all just work. The visual appearance is the differentiation now.
acoleman616 13y ago
To the point where it's becoming nearly meaningless...
codereflection 13y ago
I want more specific honesty in these announcements. Example: "Volvo — they're boxy but they're good."
- joebeetee 13y ago
  "Be safe instead of sexy"
ngoel36 13y ago
It used to be pretty natural for me to use this in product announcements (along with other catchy words: 'innovative', 'game-changing', 'amazing', etc...). "Why not, I think it's beautiful, so will everybody else!!" My manager taught me that it was far, far better for my users to discover the beauty themselves. "Under promise, over deliver." Let the user get excited about the functionality - the most beautiful or easy to use products don't need to list 'beauty' as a feature.

phatbyte 13y ago

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.

s3r3nity 13y ago
Well the 'Cinema' feature is something brand new that Vine doesn't have -- stabilizing videos like this is mind boggling to me at least and should be interesting to see how it plays out.
- yid 13y ago
  FWIW, Youtube has had this feature since May 2012, for videos considerably longer than a handful of seconds: http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2012/05/video-stabilization-on-youtube.html http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2012/05/video-stabilizati... EDIT: the demo video on that link above is pretty spectacular.
  - phatbyte 13y ago
    It's pretty damn impressive, much more impressive example than the one they showed for Instagram.

untog 13y ago

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.

schiang 13y ago
I just downloaded the app. Videos don't play automatically. You have to click the 'play' button. Doesn't look like it repeats once you play either.
- psbp 13y ago
  User uploaded ones won't autoplay, but the video ads will
  - dzlobin 13y ago
    You've posted several times in this thread so far complaining about the ads, do you have a source? There aren't any video ads right now nor did they specify _anything_ about how they might work. The only thing they _did_ say, was that user content won't be used in ads.
    - psbp 13y ago
      Long-rumored. Releases like this are just bringing it closer. http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-s-video-ads-delayed-fall/242165/ http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-s-video-ads-delaye... "Based on how they were being positioned for the summer launch, video ads will appear to targeted users in their news feeds up to three times on the day they’re slotted and will begin silently playing when a user scrolls over them, according to source who heard Facebook’s pitch. Audio won’t be activated unless a user clicks on the 15-second ad, at which point it will restart and spread over the right- and left-hand rails of the page."

ceejayoz 13y ago

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?

zachgersh 13y ago
I am willing to bet it already works with their existing API. If you check out their API docs you will see they include a "type:" attribute (which has just been image thus far). http://instagram.com/developer/endpoints/users/ http://instagram.com/developer/endpoints/users/ They were already prepared for video.

minimaxir 13y ago

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.

josh2600 13y ago

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.

psbp 13y ago
This is just a clever way to get video ads integrated into the facebook stream. Relevant: http://adage.com/abstract?article_id=242165 http://adage.com/abstract?article_id=242165
- andrewhillman 13y ago
  Not sure why people think this is about FB running ads. I highly doubt FB would consider pre-rolling an ad on a 15 second clip. Youtube is the king of pre-rolls... they probably have a min length requirement before they will insert a pre-roll. Ads don't make much sense on a 15 second clip.
  - psbp 13y ago
    RTA, it's about having 15-second ads.
    - lleims 13y ago
      I agree with this. This is a clever way of soon rolling video ads on your Facebook timeline. Audio could be disabled by default and the experience would feel less intrusive. Systrom specifically said that videos will post natively to the timeline. -- Q: Will videos post natively, on FB Timeline? A: Yes. You’ll be able to see videos right in your timeline.
  - ryguytilidie 13y ago
    I don't think people are talking about pre-rolls here, they're talking about FB using it to run video ads in your newsfeed.

gilesvangruisen 13y ago

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.

moskie 13y ago

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.

johnfowler 13y ago

Instagram just made Vine irrelevant.

hxw 13y ago
No.

tsurantino 13y ago

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.

lotso 13y ago
There are more shares from Vine on Twitter than Instagram. I'd say its use has skyrocketed.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- mef 13y ago
  Citation?
  - andrewhillman 13y ago
    http://marketingland.com/vine-passes-instagram-total-twitter-shares-47579 http://marketingland.com/vine-passes-instagram-total-twitter... But... they forgot to mention that Twitter was promoting Vine heavily during this time.

ing33k 13y ago

answer to vine ?

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
terabytest 13y ago
To be honest I think Instagram is good at what it does and this move makes it look cheaper and greedy to invade markets it's not meant to be in.

terabytest 13y ago

Vine ripoff?

sergiotapia 13y ago

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

johnrob 13y ago

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

erroneousfunk 13y ago

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

UVB-76 13y ago

The video introducing video on Instagram is on Vimeo. That speaks volumes about this service.

dignati 13y ago
You didn't think that through, did you? It's longer than 15 seconds.
- anigbrowl 13y ago
  Alternatively, Instagram didn't think their messaging through. 15 seconds is a long time.
- zalthor 13y ago
  Isn't that the real problem? You're a company that says "here's 15 seconds to convey some information". Yet, you aren't able to convey the information you wanted to (i.e the ad for your service) in 15 seconds. I think they missed a trick with this ad.

minikites 13y ago

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.

fxthea 13y ago
Good point. Instagram's killer feature was that it made amateur photographer's photos look better, but the answer for video can't be just apply filters again, right? Could it be transitions (like how Vine has hard cuts in and out now)?
- onedev 13y ago
  I think video's killer feature is the image stabilization. A large percentage of bad videos are because they're shaky as hell.
  - dakrisht 13y ago
    This is not a "killer feature" - Apple already includes a Class in iOS for video stabilization (AVCaptureConnection Class). This is just regurgitated marketing crap, as usual.
    - onedev 13y ago
      It's completely proprietary tech developed by a team of image processing specialists on the Instagram team. It does not use any standard iOS libraries in any way whatsoever.
      - workbench 13y ago
        Because it can't due to Android interoperability. Seen as they removed real time filters from the iOS version to make it more like the Android version
  - 13y ago

volaski 13y ago

Anyone on iOS 7 get the update?

ahc 13y ago
yes, I'm on iOS 7 and it was auto updated for me

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

1st1 13y ago

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.

agscala 13y ago

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

kennywinker 13y ago
Have you tried instagram's video feature yet? It totally has that same thing. Only with this you can undo your last shot, instead of re-starting if you mess up. Undo is an improvement on the formula, not a corruption.
- agscala 13y ago
  You're right, this is great

codereflection 13y ago

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.

mattquiros 13y ago

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.

LAMike 13y ago
Do you really believe this is a "surprise attack"? I'd like to hear more about Instagram being an unexpected competitor

mmanfrin 13y ago

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

archivator 13y ago

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.

samstave 13y ago
Can you elaborate on what you think they Gould be doing with this re dimension of data in video? Personally, I think everything around how Facebook does groups is broken. Get out of the single-vertical-column shackles.
- archivator 13y ago
  Anything from light trails, fading shadows, cross-frame colour effects to stuff I can't even imagine! The possibilities are greatly expanded, if you stop thinking of video as lots-of-images-one-after-another.

hospadam 13y ago

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?

dannyr 13y ago
Recently, Foursquare & Tumblr released new features on Android first then followed by iOS weeks later.
- diggan 13y ago
  Probably because you can update your app on Google Play instantly. On App Store, you'll have to go through the verification process for each update.

nashequilibrium 13y ago

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.

gfodor 13y ago
A billion dollars is a fuckload of money.
- nashequilibrium 13y ago
  I would still settle for taking a company public. Also it was much less than a billion, but there was stock issued as well.
  - spiek 13y ago
    And, IIRC, it was worth a whole heck of a lot less (like $300 mil less) because of the Facebook IPO disaster.
    - gfodor 13y ago
      The gift of hindsight. Either way they made a mint.
  - gfodor 13y ago
    The deal wasn't a billion dollars or take a company public. The deal was a billion dollars, keep building the product, or say no and prepare to compete head-on with Facebook in an all-out war. I don't think any sane person would have taken the latter.

GuriK 13y ago

RIP Vine

hxw 13y ago

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

bluetidepro 13y ago

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.

nayefc 13y ago

Cinema stabilisation does not work on iPhone 4S.

adregan 13y ago

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.

rogerchucker 13y ago

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.

dakrisht 13y ago

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.

rdouble 13y ago

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

undroid 13y ago

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.

calbear81 13y ago

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.

wluu 13y ago

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).

renownedmedia 13y ago

Vine + filters + 9 seconds