Amid lots of speculation about what the future holds for Instagram under Facebook’s ownership, the companies demonstrated what video clips will look like when captured through Instagram.
The event started at 10am PT and our live coverage of the event as it unfolded follows below. A few more details about the app can be found here, and we’ll have much more coverage from the event later today.
And that’s it, folks. A pretty short announcement, all things considered. We’ll be demo-ing the app and following up with more coverage.
Systrom keeps emphasizing that this won’t change Instagram very much — it’s still the same app, he says.
Systrom is re-iterating that your photos and videos are your own — no plan to use them in advertisements.
Just realized the app is available for download, and tried out recording Systrom talking. Pretty easy to record and filter, just like the photo app.
“We want you to learn about this new concept called video for Instagram.”
I’ve heard that’s a major complaint with Vine — not being able to come back later and post your videos after the fact. But it sounds like that option could be coming down the road.
So no, right now you can’t upload videos from the camera roll. You have to record them in the app.
“Right now we’re perfectly happy with how businesses are engaging on Instagram, which is organically.”
He’s always said Instagram will become a business, and advertisers are using Instagram to reach their fans. “But on video, I don’t think we designed it with any advertising in mind.”
“This is really driven by consumer demand and not by business need,” Systrom said.
“Our goal is to not introduce a complex editing interface.”
First we get a good clarification — the entire clip is only 15 seconds. You can tap and hold to create shorter clips within that 15 seconds, but it’s not any longer than that total.
Important question — can you upload video taken after the fact?
“Our hope is not very long at all,” Systrom says of a question about how long videos will load. “But we have to set expectations. This is day one.”
“It’s that Goldilocks moment. It seems just right,” Systrom says of the choice.
“I think it’s an artistic choice. I don’t think one is better than the other,” Systrom says of six seconds versus 15.
“It was a big undertaking, but we don’t expect it to be an issue,” Systrom says of the infrastructure challenges.
Systrom is still on stage taking questions.
Now we’re heading into Q&A.
Whether or not my videos and your videos will look that cool, we’ll have to wait and try the app to see.
“Introducing Video on Instagram,” it ends.
It’s very clever — all the same images we saw before the announcement, that showed why Instagram is great, are now moving and turning into videos.
Now we’re looking at some pretty goregous shots of people walking around SF, playing with pugs and babies, etc.
Now we’re going to watch a video they compiled from footage from users.
“I’m really proud of this team,” Systrom says. He does seem excited.
This makes sense — it’s like the video version of the photo effect that makes your photos “pop.”
So the effect kind of slows down the video and makes it easier to watch. Pretty amazing.
“We created something really awesome. We call it Cinema. Cinematic stabilization for your videos that will change video forever.”
A lot of video looks kinda shaky and wobbly, he says, pointing to a shaky photo of a cute kid on a bike.
But wait — something more, Systrom says.
That’s important — Android users were huge for growing Instagram to where it is today. Getting the new app to everyone is important.
And on day one, Android users will get it too.
13 custom-designed filters “to make your videos gorgeous,” Systrom notes.
“We’ve worked a ton on making it fast, simple, and beautiful.”
The filters definitely make the videos look better than Vine videos — kind of the same effect as they have on photos.
So the feed looks pretty much identical as before, except some of the photos move.
“I want to talk with you about a problem in mobile video.” He is not talking about internet speeds, but rather the problem of the first frame not always being that exciting.
So pretty much the exact same workflow as Instagram for photos. Only difference is that you’re recording clips instead of photos.
Once you’ve recorded your clips, you hit next and select video-specific filters.
This could be a problem for serving up video quickly. Multiple 15 second videos could take a veryy long time to load on a bad connection.
So you can record multiple 15 second clips at the bottom, if you can’t fit everything into one clip.
It’s not too short, to constrain your creativity, Systrom says. “But not all the time can you fit a single scene into 15 seconds.”
The magic number? 15 seconds.
Tap the video icon, and you go into video mode. Tap the icon to record video.
It looks exactly like the current app, with the same caputure screen but now a video icon in the bottom right.
We’re about to get a demo.
So perhaps we’ll see filters for your video to distinguish from Vine? Sounds like the aesthetics are the emphasis here.
“It wouldn’t be Instagram without being beautiful. It woudln’t be Instagram without allowing you to create beautiful content.”
It’s hard to edit video and manage it and upload, he says. Yep, video can be tough.
130 million people day one will have access to video the way they have access to pictures, Systrom says. That’s huge, that they’re not rollling out yet another FB app.
“I’d like to introduce video on Instagram.”
It was really hard to do that. But today, that changes.
“We left video on the side. Why did we do that? Because the three things we cared about were speed, simplicity, and beauty.”
Ah, now we’re hearing the much-documented story of how Systrom and Krieger built Instagram out of their former app called Burbn.
“I’m going to tell you a story. Of September 2010.”
“Now we should discuss where we’re going.”
That’s up from 100 million just a few months ago, and it’s important to note that’s active users, not just registered folks.
130 million people use Instagram every month.
They get 1 billion likes (or hearts, or double-taps) every day.
That’s a lot of brunch pics.
He’s going to tell us some stats on how far Instagram has come. 16 billion photos shared.
Now he’s rolling through a screen showing us people’s different Instagrams — a cute pug, a baby, someone skydiving.
I spy a theme there…
“Instagram is a way to stay connected,” he says. “Instagram keeps us connected.”
There are moments that we know we’ll never get back that we capture through Instagram.
It’s all about moments, he says.
It’s a tough question, not because it’s not discoverable, not because it’s intangible, but because it depends who is asking, he says.
A lot of people ask him, what is Instagram, he asks.
Now we have Instagram co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom on stage.
“Kevin and Mike are now some of the most influential leaders across all of Facebook.”
They were doing photography in a way that was really unique to mobile devices. The team is now triple the size of before.
A little more than a year ago, we asked them to join us, he says.
“Today, we’re going to focus on Instagram.”
We share in all sorts of ways, he says, from the Facebook Pages to apps like Instagram.
As our mobile strategy has evolved, we’ve been developing a variety of types of apps.
Surprise, he wants to make the world more connected! Sharing is a powerful thing, he tells us.
“It’s a big idea that a small team is working on.”
And Mark is on stage.
We should be starting in just a few minutes, we hear.
I can put my feet on Facebook’s coffee table, right?
Not a huge crowd so far — certainly not as big as the group that was here for the Android announcement, which makes sense.
Hey guys! We’re here at FB getting set up. Nothing’s started yet.








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