

Video on Instagram - chrislloyd
http://blog.instagram.com/post/53448889009/introducing-video-on-instagram-over-the-past-two

======
josh2600
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.

~~~
onedev
You don't think their stabilization technology is imaginative?

~~~
psbp
How does this compare with Youtube Capture's stabilization? I haven't used
either.

*If this is any indication youtube's is pretty good, but not as seamless: [http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2012/05/video-stabilizati...](http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2012/05/video-stabilization-on-youtube.html)

Though we haven't seen a video comparison yet.

~~~
samstave
Or Luma?

------
minikites
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
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
I think video's killer feature is the image stabilization. A large percentage
of bad videos are because they're shaky as hell.

~~~
dakrisht
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
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
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

------
joebeetee
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.

~~~
rozap
You forgot, "Beautiful".

That's the most important part. Beautiful.

~~~
loceng
This is how you stroke the ego of users.

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tsurantino
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
There are more shares from Vine on Twitter than Instagram. I'd say its use has
skyrocketed.

~~~
mef
Citation?

~~~
andrewhillman
[http://marketingland.com/vine-passes-instagram-total-
twitter...](http://marketingland.com/vine-passes-instagram-total-twitter-
shares-47579)

But... they forgot to mention that Twitter was promoting Vine heavily during
this time.

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

~~~
ngoel36
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.

~~~
jkestner
"Any man who must say, 'I am the king' is no true king."

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phatbyte
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
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
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-
stabilizati...](http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2012/05/video-
stabilization-on-youtube.html)

EDIT: the demo video on that link above is pretty spectacular.

~~~
phatbyte
It's pretty damn impressive, much more impressive example than the one they
showed for Instagram.

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

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
Google Play now supports staged roll-outs, so it may not be available to
everyone right away.

------
schiang
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.

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

~~~
mikek
Vine didn't invent mobile video.

~~~
ladybro
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.

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dakrisht
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.

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gokhan
Funny. That introduction video is on Vimeo.

~~~
obilgic
Because It is longer than 15 seconds.

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

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bluetidepro
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.

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hospadam
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
Recently, Foursquare & Tumblr released new features on Android first then
followed by iOS weeks later.

~~~
diggan
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.

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untog
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
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
User uploaded ones won't autoplay, but the video ads will

~~~
dzlobin
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
Long-rumored. Releases like this are just bringing it closer.
[http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-s-video-ads-
delaye...](http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-s-video-ads-delayed-
fall/242165/)

"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."

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

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agscala
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
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
You're right, this is great

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s3r3nity
'Cinema' seems like it is going to be a game changer

~~~
simondlr
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)

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wluu
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).

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adregan
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.

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zachgersh
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.

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gilesvangruisen
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.

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ceejayoz
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
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.

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nashequilibrium
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
A billion dollars is a fuckload of money.

~~~
nashequilibrium
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
And, IIRC, it was worth a whole heck of a lot less (like $300 mil less)
because of the Facebook IPO disaster.

~~~
gfodor
The gift of hindsight. Either way they made a mint.

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1st1
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.

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

Kudos to you Facebook.

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

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archivator
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
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
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.

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moskie
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.

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calbear81
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.

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

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undroid
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.

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

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codereflection
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.

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minimaxir
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.

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

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UVB-76
The video introducing video on Instagram is on Vimeo.

That speaks volumes about this service.

~~~
dignati
You didn't think that through, did you? It's longer than 15 seconds.

~~~
zalthor
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.

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volaski
Anyone on iOS 7 get the update?

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

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

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nayefc
Cinema stabilisation does not work on iPhone 4S.

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terabytest
Vine ripoff?

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renownedmedia
Vine + filters + 9 seconds

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

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ing33k
answer to vine ?

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terabytest
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.

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GuriK
RIP Vine

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rogerchucker
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.

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johnfowler
Instagram just made Vine irrelevant.

~~~
hxw
No.

------
bvssatish
IRONY

Use "Viemo" to promote your video platform :)

