This story was last updated at 11:43 a.m. ET.
Instagram has blessed the world with its version of short, looping videos. And it's serious about short.
Instagram announced a new app, Boomerang, which lets users create looping videos that are just one second long. The Facebook-owned company shared the news in a post on its blog on Thursday.
The app takes a burst of photos, stitching them together to create a one-second long video that can be shared on Instagram or Facebook. As the name suggests, videos play forwards and backwards, letting users create fun motion effects.
Boomerang's interface is incredibly simple. Users only get two buttons; one to capture photos and another to select between the front and rear cameras. Once the video is created, users get options to share to Facebook or Instagram, with options to share out to other services, though an attempt to share to Twitter through the app didn't go terribly well. Sharing the video to Twitter directly from Camera Roll in iOS did the trick, though the video didn't automatically loop.
The Mashable staff quickly took to Instagram to show off their finest loops.
Chilling with Boomerang A video posted by Christina Warren (@film_girl) on Oct 22, 2015 at 7:37am PDT
A video posted by Chris Perkins (@chris_perkins1) on Oct 22, 2015 at 7:37am PDT
Boomerang! A video posted by Pete Pachal (@mirrorpete) on Oct 22, 2015 at 7:44am PDT
Boomerang is very similar to Phhhoto, an app which also allows users to create gif-like videos, albeit with more sharing and filtering options. Instagram's take on the app is much simpler, but it uses a similar screen-flashing video when capturing bursts of photos. Phhhoto used Instagram's API for a "find friends" feature, but Instagram revoked access in April.