Instagram unveiled Hyperlapse, its new standalone app, Tuesday, which allows users to shoot time-lapse videos from their smartphone and upload them to social media.
Before the app went live at 1 p.m. EDT, the only way to create a time-lapse video was with Steadicam technology or a $15,000 tracking rig. Now the technology is in the hands of iPhone users for free, reports WIRED. Instagram would like to make it available on Android, but the API needs to be adjusted before that is possible.
The app is simple to use. After recording a video, users just have to select a time-lapse speed on a slider between 1x and 12x. After recording and selecting a speed, the Hyperlapse can be posted directly to Facebook and Instagram. The 1x is better used for tracking a shot while moving behind or near an object while the higher speeds are better for slow-moving or distance shots -- similar to the opening credits of Netflix show House of Cards.
Instagram provided a video to WIRED showing the difference between a normal video of city landscapes compared to the Hyperlapse version.
The app was created by software engineers Thomas Dimson and Alex Karpenko and designed by Chris Connolly. They decided to make it a standalone app because they believed it would be "hidden" in the Instagram app, but it still echoes its parent company.
"This is an app that let's you be in the moment in a different way," said Mike Krieger, Instagram's co-founder and CTO. "We did that by taking a pretty complicated image processing idea, and reducing it to a single slider. That's super Instagram-y."