By Robert Schoon (r.schoon@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Jun 20, 2013 02:32 PM EDT
Tags Instagram Video, Vine, Facebook, Twitter, Video Sharing, Apps

At the Facebook even on June 20, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom introduced their challenger to Vine, an enhanced feature of the photo-sharing app that allows users to take 15-second videos and share them over social networks. The new Instagram comes with filters, but also includes a brand-new feature that Systrom says "will change video forever."

Same Instagram: Now With Video

Systrom promised that Instagram itself won't change dramatically, but instead focus on delivering its core community a video service add-on without changing the simplicity of their app's interface. The new Instagram video is not its own app, but a feature within an update to the Instagram app which allows users to make, edit and share 15-second videos with the over 100 million active users of their service.

Within the app, there's a new video button right next to the camera option, which opens up the video-taking user interface. "This is the same Instagram we all know and love - but it moves," said Systrom at Facebook's press event on Thursday.

Within the video section of the Instagram app, users will be able to take one 15-second long video, or chop up their videography into various cuts. Systrom demonstrated how users can easily delete and replace a video bit if they're not pleased with the result, along with options to choose a cover-frame for the video - instead of the service automatically choosing the first frame of the video for its cover.

Because it's Instagram, videos will come with filter options. Users can chose one of 13 custom filters, which the photo-sharing service has designed for videos only. Most of them looked like the same kind of sepia-toned options that you may have seen on Instagram's previous photo-sharing-only app, along with a black and white "Moon" filter, but it will nevertheless be interesting to see how videos will look when they're "Instagrammed."

Cinema

Along with filters, Instagram dramatically demonstrated a new feature, which the company says they've been working on with a handful of the world's best video engineers. Called "Cinema," the new feature is a post-production image stabilizer that hopes to end the "shaky-cam" effect of hand-held videography forever.

In the demonstration, "Cinema" was capable of taking a noticeably shaky video and smoothing it out to an almost cinematic steady-cam experience (filters probably help, too). One thing about Vine videos is how disorienting and rickety the videography can be. This is sometimes great for a stop-motion effect, but Instagram is clearly going for cleaner, more professional look for their videos (though, because "Cinema" makes videos look so good, it begs the question - why limit the length of videos you can make?)

Challenging Vine

Because Instagram wants to make videos fully incorporated into the Instagram app, making it "fast, simple, and beautiful," Instagram's stream of shared content won't change for video. Instead, videos will be marked on the upper right-hand corner with a video icon, and as Systrom said (taking a swipe at Vine), a video "plays once, it doesn't loop, it doesn't get in the way."

Another strike at Vine from Instagram is that Instagram will be available for both iOS and Android from day one. Android users only recently got their hands on the Vine app earlier this summer, after it had been available for iOS for months. However, Vine skyrocketed in popularity in recent weeks, after the Android introduction, and the Vine team has been hinting at some new features to challenge the brand-new Instagram video service.

Vine, Twitter's six-second video app, hinted at some changes to its service just before Facebook's announcement on Thursday. For those who were mystified by Facebook's oblique press invite "for coffee," Vine's actions pretty much gave away what Facebook was planning on introducing.

Vine's Preemptive Response

On Vine's blog Wednesday, the company posted a "thank you" message to its users, promising that "this is just the beginning" and saying that "over the next few weeks, we'll be introducing some exciting new parts of Vine."

Later, on Thursday morning, just ahead of Facebook's event, Vine co-founder Dom Hoffman and Vine's creative director Rus Yusupov posted some Vine videos (of course) hinting at some of those new features. First off, Vine is fine, but it's a terrible way to clearly show off a new UI or features of your service. Of course, that may be the point - they probably wanted to tease more than reveal.


Dom Hoffman's first Vine video, titled "Tinkering," seems to tease full-screen videos and text within video, and perhaps some changes to the share screen.

Text within video and perhaps private messaging seems to be hinted at by Hoffman's second video, called "Say something nice."


Finally, Rus Yusupov's video, called "Bleep Boop" may hint at some new video-editing tools for Vine, but we'll have to wait until Vine posts something clearer than teaser Vine videos to find out.

Will Vine - with whatever enhancements it is planning - be able to take on the Cinematic Instagram video? We'll have to wait and see.

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