Earlier today, Instagram launched a new app which lets you make one second videos, which then get looped – almost like a GIF animation. Instagram is building some simple but genuinely useful applications for iOS, Layout lets you arrange your photos into a collage and then post it to Instagram, Facebook or download it. Hyperlapse arrived last year just before the release of iOS 8 which actually did include a built in Time Lapse feature, but Instagram’s app was very popular with users.

This new app named “Boomerang” lets you take a one second video and then loop it, effectively playing forwards and backwards very quickly. To take a Boomerang, it works the same way as taking a photo, point your phone at what you want to take and then press the shutter button – the software will then take ten or so photos to create the loop. The app then allows you to share the video Facebook or Instagram straight from the app, like Layout.

“Capture a friend jumping off a diving board, defying physics as she flies back and forth through the air.” – Instagram blog

The app

The app is available now on iPhone and iPod touch for iOS 7 and later.