Instagram's newest app, Boomerang, takes on Apple's Live Photos

Start making GIF's of all the things

Instagram is expanding its range of apps further today by introducing a new video-looping service to rival the likes of HTC Zoe and the iPhone’s baked-in Live Photos. Boomerang takes a quick burst of photos in-app, and then turns them in to a moving photo, or video, that loops forward and backward. Don’t call it a GIF though, it’s a Boomerang…



Boomerang joins Hyperlapse and Layout in Instagram’s portfolio of individual apps, and offers yet another way for you to share your life in short bursts with your friends and followers. As you’d expect, you can share your Boomerangs on Instagram and Facebook, in both portrait or landscape modes. The company announced its latest move on its official blog:

"Capture a friend jumping off a diving board, defying physics as she flies back and forth through the air. Transform an ordinary selfie with your friends into a funny video. Get that exact moment your friend blows out his birthday candles, then watch them come back to life again and again.

Press a button and the app does the rest. Boomerang takes a burst of photos and stitches them together into a high-quality mini video that plays forward and backward. Shoot in portrait or landscape. Share it on Instagram. Boomerang automatically saves it to your camera roll. We’re inspired by the visual stories you tell on Instagram."

Boomerang is available to download from the Google Play Store and from the App Store today. Supports any iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 7.0 or later and Android smartphones with 4.3 and higher.