Boomerang and Hyperlapse standalone apps have been removed from app stores as their functionality is already available within Reels.
Instagram has retired its separate Boomerang and Hyperlapse apps. Although the platform is still to make a formal announcement, the video editing apps have already been removed from both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
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The move comes as part of Instagram’s broader plans to focus mainly on Reels. Along with pulling these two standalone apps from app stores last week, the platform also confirmed its plan to shut down its standalone IGTV app.
An Instagram spokesperson commented to TechCrunch that the platform has “removed support for the standalone Boomerang and Hyperlapse apps to better focus our efforts on the main app. We’ll continue working on new ways for people to be creative and have fun on Instagram.”
The time-lapse video app Hyperlapse and the looping video app Boomerang were first launched between 2014 and 2015. The integration of their functions into the Instagram camera has made their need to exist redundant.
According to Apptopia, among the two apps, Boomerang was the one with a more extensive user base, with 301 million lifetime global downloads, compared with just 23 million for iOS-only Hyperlapse app, and still an average of 26,000 downloads per day at the time of its removal from the stores on March 1.
Compared to when the two retiring apps were first launched, Instagram today offers its users an intrinsic ability to edit photos and videos posts right from within the app, with an abundant offering for creation tools collected within the “Compose” button in the top right of the screen instead of the bottom-center.
At the same time, Instagram has long integrated a suite of creative tools – like SloMo, Echo, and Duo – right into the app’s camera, making it unnecessary for the video effects to have a standalone app available for download still.
Under a broader context, it’s worth noting that last year Instagram’s head Adam Mosseri specified that Reels and short video format content was to take most of the spotlight in the app, giving way for plans to clear up clutter around it. Since then, the company confirmed the shutdown of the IGTV and exerted efforts to make video as simple as possible to both discover and create from within its main app.
Photo by Damien Roué on Unsplash
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