If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words might a video be worth? Today’s announcement by Instagram that their popular photo platform now includes video is being met with mixed reviews as users try out the new service. Some who never got into using Vine are still shunning the newest social video sharing tool it while others are dipping their toes in the water to experiment with filters, image stabilization, and the ability to capture and share a total of 15 seconds of video with each upload.
Introducing Video on Instagram from Instagram on Vimeo.
While 100 million active Instagram users love sharing their photos through the community, Lisa Frame of A Daily Pinch feels that “they are a day late and a dollar short and it’s a desperate attempt to compete with Vine.” With the rise in popularity of video in the past couple years, there’s certainly a need to compete. According to the USA Today, “Vine users posted more videos on Twitter than did Instagram’s photo sharers earlier this month, according to measurement firm Topsy Analytics. Vine is the No. 3 iOS app trailed by Instagram at No. 21.”
But aside from the competition aspect, users who love their Instagram will probably start using Video on Instagram which features 15 seconds of video versus Vine’s six seconds though Hillary Chybinsky of My Scraps is finding “hard to get used to if you’ve gotten used to 6. In addition to the longer amount of footage, Video on Instagram also includes 13 filters, the ability to select your favorite scene from what you’ve recorded as your cover image, and a feature called Cinema that provides image stabilization to even the shakiest of clips.
Cinema for Video on Instagram from Instagram on Vimeo.
Video on Instagram is easy to use right from the start. Here’s how:
- Start by updating your Instagram app. Instagram is available for iOS via Apple’s App Store and modern Android devices through Google Play.
- Open the app and hit the camera button to capture footage.
- In addition to the camera button in the center, there is a video camera icon to the right
- Tap on the video icon and press and hold the red button to record up to 15 seconds of video. Lifting your finger will stop recording.
- See the arrow that points to the left next to the red video record button in the center image below? That handy little button allows you to delete the last clip recorded.
The ability to delete the last clip recorded is an extremely helpful feature. With with Vine, users need to scrap the whole video and re-record or and publish, a true problem for Type As like myself. Elena Sonnino of Live Do Grow agreed and said, “The one thing that I like so far much much more on Instagram is that you can delete a segment…that was incredibly annoying on Vine.”
Another small feature that makes the world of difference is Video on Instagram’s ability to keep a captured clip to add footage to it it later. There have been instances where I’ve recorded videos on Vine and not been able to publish them right away due to lack of cell service and wifi. When attempting to upload a video without service, Vine puts it in a queue to publish later whereas clips that aren’t yet published time out and disappear from the app after a certain period of time. So far a set of unpublished clips on Video on Instagram are still waiting in the wings to be finished and published hours later whereas they would have been long gone on Vine.
What do you think? Are you a fan of Video on Instagram or will you be sticking with Vine?
And just remember, Instagram is owned by Facebook so whatever terms of service you agreed to about Facebook owning your photo content is likely to apply to your videos as well. Be mindful when you capture and share!
No compensation was received for this post. Images courtesy of Instagram.
Thank-you for an excellent and quick review. It seems like this is a much improved Vine, and that means this is the new service that wil be taking over! I can;t wait to use this now that I know it is not a new app to download!