Somewhat reminiscent of the Live Photos feature introduced with the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, the free Boomerang from Instagram allows for the capture of what could almost be termed moving images. Basically, use the app to take a shot of anything moving, and a burst of photos will be taken before being stitched together into a continually looping mini video.
Of course, the key question is: why use Boomerang rather than Live Photos? Well, mainly because, unlike Live Photos, it can be used on all iOS devices running iOS 7 or above, including – as of the new version 1.1 under review – iPads. No Instagram account is necessary for using the app, which also includes buttons for sharing your miniature masterpieces to both Instagram and that site’s owner, Facebook.
Nonetheless, Boomerang still doesn’t feel overly special. It can be fun at times, and the direct social media integration – albeit strangely lacking Twitter – works well enough. However, it’s also buggy – many of the busier scenes we tried to capture led to the app crashing as it attempted to save the video. The dearth of interesting features also restricts Boomerang’s lasting appeal.
