Finally, we will have the ability to sift through our friends’ five-minute Instagram posts.
Instagram will be adding a seek bar to videos in an upcoming update. Similar to one you might find on YouTube, the seek bar will let users skim through videos to fast-forward and rewind to the parts they want to watch.
The new feature was discovered by app researcher Jane Manchun Wong.
Instagram is testing video seekbar pic.twitter.com/gyIZZhrh2y
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) March 27, 2019
Currently, users have to go through the inconvenient process of rewatching a video from the start and waiting to get to the part they want to watch. Being able to avoid an Instagram user’s cringey video intro or a few minutes of dull content will prove very useful.
It is unknown whether or not this feature will be available in stories, but we can hope it will be. There is no set date for when the update will drop, but if we can wait this long, we can wait a bit longer.
What next?
The ability to rewind and fast-forward videos will encourage more users to post longer content. Currently, videos are typically less than a minute long due to the lack of that control. Content creators such as Twitch streamers and how-to video creators may upload some longer content to Instagram to reach out more to their audiences. This may inspire more people to try and become Insta-famous and monetize their Instagram pages.
