Instagram is preparing to implement a feature that should have been standard years ago
Instagram is an already hugely popular photo and video-sharing social networking service, with over 1 billion monthly active users as of last year, but believe it or not, there's still plenty of room for growth, mostly due to the many security and privacy scandals surrounding its parent company's core platform. At the same time, it's pretty crazy to think Instagram has reached this insane level of mainstream success without ever offering some basic features.
Case in point, a fast-forward option for those 15-second clips you can add to your stories or the up to 60-second videos allowed to be uploaded to one's Instagram profile. Incredibly enough, that's not yet a thing, even though the video social component has enriched Instagram's focus and functionality years ago. But according to a Twitter user known for her very reliable work discovering unreleased features for apps like Facebook and Instagram, the long-awaited video seek bar is currently being tested internally.
Instagram is testing video seekbar pic.twitter.com/gyIZZhrh2y
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) March 27, 2019
Jane Manchun Wong has the GIF to prove that claim, and indeed, the feature works as expected, with no unnecessary bells and whistles. Unfortunately, we can't be sure this will roll out to the masses anytime soon, although given its simplicity and potential popularity, we don't see what could possibly hold off its wide-scale rollout. Once that happens, you'll presumably be able to both go forward and back in time in any given Instagram video instead of waiting for the whole thing to unfold, then play it back from the beginning if only a small part of it caught your attention.
Interestingly, this seems to be only one of several Instagram add-ons in the pipeline, alongside a delay and warning for posting comments identified as potentially offensive, a new "Trusted Devices" section in the app's two-factor authentication settings, and a couple of changes targeting Creator Accounts, aka high-profile influencers. It remains to be seen how many of these features will go public and when.
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