In their constant search for anything that is relatively new and might be enjoyable, Instagram has recently introduced a new standalone app called "Boomerang."
It enables users to shoot a one second burst of five photos, which basically looks like a video on infinite loop.
"Boomerang takes a burst of photos and stitches them together into a high-quality mini video that plays forward and backward," Instagram announced in their official blog.
"Boomerangs" or the clips/ burst photos that users create are automatically saved to their camera roll and can be directly shared on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites.
However, Instagram carefully points out that Boomerangs are quite different from GIFs. It is not a Vine either, since it focuses on one particular moment that users want to capture like their friend sneezing or blowing birthday candles.
Boomerang is expected to draw the teen demographic back to Instagram, a demographic mostly attracted to Snapchat due to its ever-changing features.
According to Tech Crunch, Boomerang was originally created by five Instagram engineers in a hackathon a few months ago.
"It was something we built just for fun for us to play with as a team," said Boomerang's Product Manager John Barnett. Later on, the photo sharing site decided to build the app up after seeing potential.
Boomerang is straightforward. Users simply have to click the shutter button (it works both with the rear camera and the front camera). Boomerang then quickly captures five frames in just a second and automatically loops the said frames in fast forward. The result? Hilarious (especially if you're capturing weird pet habits or babies).
"Babies are really, really fun with Boomerang," Barnett said.
On the other hand, some critics can't help but compare Boomerang to Apple's Live Photos.
"I've only spent a few minutes on this app, but I feel like this might get a little more attention from me instead of "Live Photos," an app user commented on Boomerang's iTunes page. "I get how the Live Photos concept is cool and different but I feel like this boomerang app could really gain some ground. Maybe future releases could incorporate gif creation."
Instagram's Boomerang is available both on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
