At a press event today Facebook announced the addition of video to popular photo sharing application Instagram.
The move, in an obvious position against Twitter’s video sharing app Vine, comes with the introduction of Vine for Android, along with widespread news that Instagram sharing had declined in favor of the six-second videos.
Here are the Instagram Video basics:
- 15 second video clips (with the ability to edit sections within videos)
- 13 Custom filters designed for Instagram Video only.
- No Looping
- The ability to select a cover frame (excellent opportunity for brands)
- Day One iOS and Android Support
- Full support for Video on Instagram.com Web Profiles
- Auto-play on mobile upon touch release, play button on web
- Instagram Cinema: Powerful Cinematic stabilization for Instagram Videos
The move is a play on a larger social landscape that Facebook hopes can increase usage across both apps, and drive more value to ads on their platforms.
After Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram a year ago, both Facebook and Instagram have changed significantly and become closer connected through sharing, privacy features, and now introduction of hashtags to Facebook.
Kevin Systrom announced Instagram now has 130 million monthly active users who have uploaded 16 Billion photos, liking 1 Billion Photos a day and has been growing significantly in popularity.
Clearly Instagram has some unique opportunities to differentiate from Vine.
While today’s Instagram announcement made no mention of embeddable video clips (something Vine supports,) neither offer the ability to import your own video clips.
Yesterday some employees at Vine teased a number of new features in anticipation for the upcoming short-form video war, so the battle has only begun.
What are your first impressions of Video for Instagram? Do you plan to start using it for videos?