Instagram introduces new standalone app Boomerang for iOS, Android; captures 1-second video loops

Instagram has introduced a new app going by the name Boomerang for iOS and Android which will create looping and GIF-like clips. The app basically takes a one-second burst of five photos and puts them together in a video that plays forward and backward in a loop. According to the Instagram Blog, one can capture a friend jumping off a diving board, defying physics as she flies back and forth through the air. Transform an ordinary selfie with your friends into a funny video. Get that exact moment your friend blows out his birthday candles, then watch them come back to life again and again. Users can shoot either in portrait or landscape and share it on Instagram. Boomerang automatically saves these videos to the camera roll as well. In addition, the app doesn’t require an Instagram account like other Instagram standalone apps such as Hyperlapse and Layout. Instagram had previously  announced that the community has grown to more than 400 million. The Facebook-owned platform says that 75 percent of its users are living outside of the U.S. Also, the countries that added the most Instagrammers include Brazil, Japan and Indonesia. Instagram stated in its  blog that 80 million photos per day were shared on the platform. Facebook, which bought Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion, dominates mobile advertising, with more than 75 percent of its $3.8 billion ad revenue coming from phones. Instagram ad revenue is projected to reach $1.5 billion in 2016, according to eMarketer, a research firm, and nearly double by 2017 to $2.8 billion.