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Instagram unveiled Hyperlapse on Tuesday, a new stand-alone app for filming time-lapse videos on your smartphone. It’s the second stand-alone app to come from Instagram since Facebook bought the service for $1 billion back in 2012. (Instagram unveiled a one-touch messaging app called Bolt to select countries — but not the U.S. — a few weeks back.)
With Hyperlapse, users can record up to 45 minutes of video through the app and then speed that video up as much as 12 times the initial speed.
Unlike Instagram or Facebook, Hyperlapse does not require users to create a username or password. Once a video is rendered at the speed you like, you can simply save it to your camera roll and save it or share it however you prefer.
Of course, Instagram hopes you share it to your Instagram or Facebook account, but it’s not required. Users can choose to log in to Hyperlapse with their Instagram account if they’d like one-touch sharing to their Instagram account, but again, this is not a requirement.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this year that the company would be releasing a number of stand-alone apps in 2014, so these types of new products aren’t a total surprise. Previous stand-alone apps like Slingshot (similar to Snapchat) and Paper, a news reader app, were created by a teams of employees within Facebook known as Facebook Creative Labs.
Hyperlapse, however, was not a Creative Labs project, according to a spokesperson. Instead, it was built by the Instagram team. It wasn’t rolled into the existing Instagram app so that users would have more freedom to create and save longer videos, according to this spokesperson. Instagram videos are limited to 15 seconds, but Hyperlapse supports videos nearly four minutes in length.
It may soon have competition, though. Apple’s upcoming iOS 8 operating system includes a built-in time lapse mode for the camera, meaning users will be able to capture the same type of videos without the need for another app. You won’t be able to share to Facebook or Instagram with one touch, but (supposedly) that’s not Instagram’s intention with Hyperlapse anyway.
Hyperlapse is only available for iOS. The team is not working on an Android version yet, as Android doesn’t have the appropriate camera technology needed, according to a spokesperson. The app is available in the App Store here.
Correction: Hyperlapse is Instagram’s second standalone app release since joining Facebook. The first paragraph has been corrected to reflect this. Update: Includes section on iOS 8 and upcoming time lapse technology.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
