Instagram’s Boomerang Stories feature now has three new options that users will enjoy, TechCrunch reported.
The new editing options, called “SlowMo,” “Echo” and “Duo,” are aimed at making the social media app more entertaining for users who love creating short videos using it.
“Boomerangs” are Instagram’s way of letting users create short videos that play in a loop.
Unlike other loops, however, these play back-and-forth, like seeing a video play normally then rewind the moment it hits the end of the playing time, and then play again normally.
Instagram launched a US-based fact-checking program in early 2019, which has now gone global.
Instagram has added three new options to its Boomerang stories feature.
The new Boomerang tools can be found by swiping right on Instagram to open the Stories composer, and then swiping left at the bottom of the screen’s shutter selector.
After shooting a Boomerang, an infinity symbol button atop the screen reveals the alternate effects and video trimmer.
Mobile researcher Jane Manchun Wong spotted Instagram prototyping new Boomerang filters and the trimmer last year.
Typically, Boomerang captures one second of silent video which is then played forward and then in reverse three times to create a six-second loop that can be shared or downloaded as a video.
The new editing options will allow users to add a bit of dramatic effect to make their Boomerang Stories more fun and interesting to watch.
Instagram announced via a tweet that the three new options are now available globally.
“Starting today, people on Instagram will be able to share new SloMo, Echo, and Duo Boomerang modes on Instagram,” a Facebook company spokesperson told TechCrunch.
“Your Instagram camera gives you ways to express yourself and easily share what you’re doing, thinking, or feeling with your friends,” the spokesperson said.
“Boomerang is one of the most beloved camera formats and we’re excited to expand the creative ways that you can use Boomerang to turn everyday moments into something fun and unexpected.”
The effects aren’t entirely original. Snapchat has offered slow-motion and fast-forwards video effects since just days after the original launch of Boomerang back in 2015.
TikTok meanwhile provides several motion blur filters and pixelated transitions. But since these are all available with traditional video, unlike on Instagram where they’re confined to Boomerangs, there’s more creative flexibility to use the effects to hide cuts between takes or play with people’s voices.
That’s won TikTok a plethora of ingenious memes that rely on these tools. Users high-five themselves using an Echo-esque feature, highlight action-packed moments or loud sounds with Duo-style glitch cuts, and conjure an army of doppelgangers behind them with infinity clones effect.
Instagram Stories has instead focused on augmented reality face filters and classier tools like the layout.
As the name implies, SlowMo slows the video playback speed in half. This means that instead of playing for one second in each direction, each video will now play for two seconds in each direction.
This will allow viewers to see looped videos in greater detail.
This option adds a blur effect that results in a translucent trail being left as the subject moves on the screen.
This is meant to create a “double vision effect,” like when a person is dizzy or drunk.