Instagram has video — 15-second, filtered, camera-stabilized miniature movies, to be exact. But more importantly, with the release, video will finally get its moment in the spotlight.
Thursday, Facebook-owned Instagram added video sharing, giving members a way to capture up to 15 seconds of video and frame their footage, using a filter or automatic camera stabilization, in the best light possible.
Though the product bears resemblance to Twitter’s Vine, which allows for 6-second clips, Instagram video comes with the qualities that its built-in audience of more than 130 million people have grown to love: it dramatically improves upon the act of capturing video. It’s as if Instagram is repeating history, doing for video what it’s already done for the photo by making the medium approachable to the masses.