Instagram debuts Hyperlapse, a video app to make amateurs look like pros

· 1 minute read · via Punchkick
Five Hyperlapse screens on blue iPhone 5c models: recording on a desert road, sharing to Instagram and Facebook, a stabilized hillside, a 12× sped-up jumper and a view from a plane window
Hyperlapse’s screenshots in the App Store at launch. Image: Instagram

In keeping with their recent app diversification strategy, this morning Instagram announced a new video app focused on perfecting smartphone videographers’ creations. Called Hyperlapse, the app uses bleeding-edge video stabilization technology to automatically remove shakiness from iPhone videos, allowing users to create professional-grade time-lapse videos that can easily be shared on—you guessed it—Instagram.

Two Hyperlapse screens: a stabilized clip of a woman on a hillside above the clouds at 6×, and a man leaping past a wall at 12×
Image: Instagram

Users can drag a simple slider to increase playback speed up to 12 times, meaning Hyperlapse shooters can share anything from smooth tracking shots to accelerated time-lapses that showcase Instagram’s custom stabilization algorithms. But while Hyperlapse allows for a level of professional-grade video work that rivals footage from more expensive equipment, the app doesn’t include any editing features or Instagram’s signature filters. Instead, it features a clean, minimal design familiar to users of other video apps like Snapchat and even Instagram’s half-launched Bolt image sharer. In an inclusive move, the Hyperlapse app doesn’t require users to sign in with an account from either Facebook or Instagram, opening up the app’s utility to smartphone videographers outside the companies’ core audiences.

Interestingly, Microsoft recently published a research report on first-person stabilized time-lapse videos it, too, called “hyper-lapses”—but the company didn’t move forward to introduce any tangible product. The new app comes mere weeks before Apple is expected to release iOS 8, which will include time-lapse video support right in the stock Camera app. Hyperlapse will only be available for download on the iOS App Store for the foreseeable future, as Android will require some additions to their photography and video APIs for the app’s features to be possible on the platform.