Before you go rushing off to download third-party apps, always check to see what native apps Instagram provides and endorses.
You’ll be much less likely to run into a situation where a third-party app you rely on suddenly gets fully or partially banned—something that happened with Snapchat just last week.
Here are three original apps developed by Instagram that will eliminate having to use third-party apps and easily help you your feeds stand out:
- Hyperlapse allows you to make videos out of short time-lapse, looping photographs—yes, even time-lapse selfies. Go to the Hyperlapse feed to see examples of what you can do and how creatively you can put this app to use.
That’s the sort of viral video you could share with your followers most likely without hurting your brand. (Before sharing something with viral potentiality, ask yourself does it represent something about the lifestyle or values you stand for as a brand; it is a symbol of success? A symbol of something your brand strongly stands for?)
Ideas for Hyperlapse:
- Show yourself arriving at an exciting destination (give your viewer the excitement of walking through the door or out of the airport)
- Don’t just share a quote: Make the quote materialize before their eyes as you write it by hand with a colorful marker
- Show yourself drawing a cartoon character, chart or other graphic to illustrate a single point
- Demonstrate something (for example, a single exercise, if you’re a fitness coach)
- Make the Most of Instagram Native Apps
- Capture a client receiving an award or being introduced, if you’re both at an event together
- Capture people at an event holding up prizes
- Capture any truly spectacular experience that the average person will never have (for example, watching a rocket launch, live)
- Showcase multiple experts arriving at an event
- Share a cute happening everyone can enjoy (for example, your dog performing a unique trick)
And do remember to brand your photographs and videos!
- Boomerang is another app for Instagram, replacing Snapchat, with whom Instagram seems to have had a parting of the ways.
Its premise is simple: Take a one-second video that will automatically reverse itself, allowing the video subject to perform eye-catching and seemingly impossible motions—for example, blowing a stream of bubbles; then sucking it back.
When creating Boomerang videos, first think of the effect and mood you want to produce.
- Layout allows you to select photos from your camera roll or take new ones to assemble into a photo-collage.
You can choose custom layouts and preview them easily, and Layout lets you choose from All, Faces and Recent, if you’re selecting from your camera roll. You arrange your photos in the collage by pinching or pulling them into the size you want, dragging and dropping them onto your collage; and even flipping and rotating them.
This eliminates a variety of third-party apps, simplifying and shortening the time it will take to create a collage.
