After IGTV, Instagram shuts down Boomerang, Hyperlapse standalone apps

Shortly after dropping support for the IGTV application, Instagram has removed its standalone Boomerang as well as Hyperlapse apps from Apple's App Store and Google Play.

"We have removed support for the standalone Boomerang and Hyperlapse apps to better focus our efforts on the main app," Instagram spokesperson Christine Pai said in a statement to The Verge.

"Boomerang is still supported in-app in Stories, and Layout remains a standalone app in the Store. We'll continue working on new ways for people to be creative and have fun on Instagram."

Boomerang from Instagram launched back in 2014 and allowed users to create mini videos from a burst of 10 shots.

With 301 million lifetime global downloads, Boomerang was a famous app and people were still downloading the app at the time of its removal.

Unveiled in 2014, Hyperlapse let users make professional-looking time-lapse videos and, perhaps more importantly, offered impressive video stabilisation. Meanwhile, Instagram is introducing automatic captions to videos in the feed. They will be enabled by default for creators, too.

Auto-generated captions will initially be available in "select" languages, but Instagram hopes to expand them to more languages and countries.

The AI behind the captions won't be flawless. Instagram expects the quality to "continue to improve" as the AI learns, however.

The addition should improve accessibility for deaf and hard-of-hearing users, who will have more choices for spoken-word video.

Producers won't have to manually add captions themselves. However, Instagram also noted that this should help people who simply prefer to watch videos with the sound off.

--IANS

wh/svn/