Instagram, the world's most popular photo app owned by Facebook, released its second standalone app last week, Hyperlapse, which brings time-lapse videos to the smartphone.
Typically shot on expensive cameras placed for hours on tripods, time lapse videos are largely associated with hyperactive fast-forward videos of night turning to day or vice versa, flowers blooming, people rushing around town, and traffic. The technique often replicates the comedic shorts from Charlie Chaplin and Benny Hill.
With Hyperlapse, time-lapse videos can be done fairly well without a tripod or expensive camera. The app features built-in stabilization technology that smoothes out much of the hand shaking and imperfections often seen as the bane of taking videos with smartphones.
The app records up to 45 minutes at one time. Users pick a speed between 1x-12x and can quickly share the video on Instagram or Facebook. With the action sped up, the soundtrack is eliminated.
The app—only available currently for Apple devices for now—quickly shot to the top five of the most downloaded apps on the iTunes chart.
Instagram cited uses such as documenting an entire commute, preparing a dinner from start to finish, or capturing an entire sunset as it unfolds—all with the video length running close to seconds.
"The app has quickly struck a chord with folks—from Nickelodeon artists showing how to draw SpongeBob Squarepants really quickly, to the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas and even the White House, people are having lots of fun with the Hyperlapse app," Instagram wrote in a press release.
Digitalstrategicconsulting.com noted how brands such as Bud Light, AriZona Beverage Co. and Burton Snowboards had already found creative ways to use Hyperlapse. Most people are using it for quick, fun videos less than ten seconds that are popular on Vine.
"Watching people zip around town at top speeds never gets old," wrote Jefferson Graham for USA Today. "But at its core, the app is basically just a fast forward speed gimmick."
More encouragingly, Jenna Wortham, writing for the "Bits" column in The New York Times, believes time-lapse videos may expand how people express themselves on social networks beyond showing photos of their dinner plates or the dreaded selfie. She wrote, "Time, like camera filters, provides a new prism through which people view and present themselves to the world."
Apple is also widely expected to include a time-lapse feature on its new mobile devices.
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