Yesterday, CEO of Instagram Keven Systrom and Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Instagram 4.0—the latest update to Instagram that includes a video feature!
Instagram video allows users to post 15-second videos to their feeds. I've played with this new feature and have some pros and cons to report back to you as well as some tips and tricks.
Pros of Instagram Video
- Choose from 13 brand new filters. Instagram is making it just as easy to customize your videos as it does for your pictures;
- Choose a cover photo for your video. I love that they made this an option, as we have all seen the silly previews that often pop up on videos;
- Cinema image stabilization is a quick fix for shaky video (available only for iPhone 4S and 5);
- Users can tap the image before beginning the video to focus the depth of field;
- Easily delete the last frame of a video.
Cons of Instagram Video
- Users can't manually import videos to Instagram—you have to take the video from inside the app;
- As of now, there is no easy way to embed your Instagram videos onto your website. Mashable found a way around this, but we would like to see an "embed" button.
To take an Instagram video, you'll first have to install the 4.0 update in the App Store. Once updated, click the camera button as you normally would to take a picture, and you'll see two options: one for a photo and one smaller button to the right for a video.
Hold down the recording button for at least 3 seconds and as long as 15 seconds to take a video. When you're finshed, release the button and click "next" in the top right corner. By default, Cinema image stabilization is turned on. If you would rather not use stabilization, you can turn it off (the icon looks like a vibrating camera) after you select a filter for your video. After selecting a filter you have the option to choose a cover photo for your video, and then you would share it as you would a photo. To delete the last frame of your video, click the back arrow to select the frame, then click the trash icon.
To view Instagram videos, look for the "play" symbol on the top right corner of an image to let you know it's a video. Instagram videos are set to autoplay by default, which can be inconvenient if you're at work or in a quiet room. To turn that feature off, go to Options > Auto-Play Videos > Off.
Instagram video is available for those using a 3GS device or newer running iOS 5.0 or later. Don't worry though, even if you can't take video with your device, you should still be able to watch videos from those you follow.
Have you played with Instagram video yet? What have been your first impressions?
