Instagram for Mobile and Web Now Endlessly Loops Videos

Facebook-owned Instagram has updated its Android and iOS app with automatic video loop feature, somewhat like Twitter-owned micro-video sharing service Vine.

The company updated Instagram for Android (version 6.14.1) on Wednesday last week and iOS (version 6.5.0) app on Wednesday this week. Videos in users feed now auto-play muted, and loop endlessly. Users have the option to unmute the video. On the Web in the meanwhile, videos don't auto-play but still do loop endlessly once they are started.

The "What's New" section for both Android and iOS Instagram app includes only one change and that is "videos now automatically replay in feed", alongside assuring users that "This won't affect how much data the app uses." The feature is being speculated to be very useful for advertisers on the network.

The social networking giant appears to be making some serious efforts to make good use of videos, as earlier in December too, Facebook had introduced the auto playing functionality for the eligible video mobile app-install ads in News Feed, a feature which according to company that will help marketers spread the word even more.

Announcing the feature the company had noted, "As more and more people upload, share and discover video on Facebook, marketers are realising the value of video at every stage of the buying cycle, from awareness to conversion."

(Also see: Facebook Testing Video Ads That Play After a Clip Finishes)

Not just that, later the same month Facebook began testing a new Video section design for Facebook Pages on the Web. The company was seen testing the new Videos section design only on a few Pages, which appeared similar to the YouTube channels interface, complete with featured videos and playlists.

(Also see: Facebook Video Draws Thanksgiving Ads From Macy's, Others)