Instagram videos are making an impression on the sites users and drawing obvious comparisons between the new service and the already existing Vine. When Instagram revealed its new video format last week, there were a variety of responses from the public ranging from praise to hatred to accusations that Facebook (the owner of Instagram) has copied yet another existing idea—Twitter’s Vine. As users had the chance this week to experiment with and browse through the new video-friendly Instagram, more reactions are surfaces and many of them are critical.
Perhaps the biggest complaint of the videos posted on Instagram is the poor quality of the clips. The photo-sharing site is known for displaying high quality shots with its signature filters, but the majority of videos posted so far by Instagram users are less than impressive.
So Instagram responded to fans, hoping to improve the overall video viewing experience. The company posted to its blog over the weekend with detailed advice on how to properly watch and enjoy the clips. It seems many users were complaining about the lack of sound, but they had simply silenced their phone while browsing Instagram. Technical problems and silly confusions such as these are easily remedied, but Instagram may be facing bigger problems with its new video capabilities.
Most users were very content with the posting, viewing and sharing photos through Instagram, adding an interesting filter here and there to set the mood of the picture. But now, with videos thrown into the mix of photographs displayed on Instagram, the cohesive photo-viewing experience has been interrupted, and not everyone is happy about it.
Complaints have been voiced about the slow video speeds, the autoplay feature, and the fact that videos seem to clash with the well-established Instagram culture. Perhaps videography is simply harder to master than photography; if this is the case, than Instagram users may simply need a couple lessons on filming to get the content quality back up to what everyone was used to.