In an apparent effort to keep up with TikTok, Instagram released new “Boomerang” features on Friday.
According to Mashable, Instagram users can now trim the duration of their video loops and access new video effects—which should look eerily similar for anyone who’s ever used TikTok before.
Here are the latest effects, and how an Instagram spokesperson described each to TechCrunch:
- SlowMo: “Slows down your Boomerang to capture each detail”
- Echo: Creates a double vision effect.”
- Duo: “Both speeds up and slows down your Boomerang, adding a texturized effect.”
- Trimming: “Edit the length of your Boomerang, and when it starts or ends.”
🐢 SlowMo
— Instagram (@instagram) January 10, 2020
🗣 Echo
👯♀️ Duo
Boomerang has new creative twists that'll make you say yaaassssss. Try them all out today. pic.twitter.com/wp0A71RefL
For what it’s worth, Snapchat has offered a slow-motion and fast-forward feature for years. And despite Instagram’s latest upgrades, it’s still behind the curve when it comes to video effects. TikTok provides motion blur filters and pixelated transitions–which Instagram has yet to copy.
But as Mashable notes, the new features aren’t a complete surprise. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg previously hinted at plans to take on rival TikTok.
“[TikTok] married short-form, immersive video with browse,” he said in October at a leaked meeting. “So it’s almost like the Explore Tab that we have on Instagram. … I kind of think about TikTok as if it were Explore for stories, and that were the whole app … So we have a number of approaches that we’re going to take towards this.”
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