Instagram Boomerang: photo-sharing site launches new looping video app

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom said his company's nudity policy was based on App Store rules (EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)

Instagram has launched a new video app, Boomerang, which stitches together a series of photos into a video.

The app takes a series of pictures in a burst and then stitches them together into a looping video that plays forward and back. Users open the app and press a button, initiating the burst that will be automatically stuck together by Instagram.

Though the videos can be quickly shared to Instagram, no login is required to use the app. And the short videos can be saved to the phone's camera roll to be shared in other apps.

"Press a button and the app does the rest," Instagram wrote in its blogpost announcing the new app. "Boomerang takes a burst of photos and stitches them together into a high-quality mini video that plays forward and backward. Shoot in portrait or landscape. Share it on Instagram. Boomerang automatically saves it to your camera roll."

Instagram has launched separate aps for specific functions before. It has a timelapse app called Hyperlapse — which allows people to speed up a video — and Layout, which puts pictures into a collage for easy sharing on Instagram.

The app is available now from the relevant app store.