Instagram Working on Several New Photo Features for iPhone 7 Series

Photo sharing app Instagram is set to become one of the first platforms specifically designed to take advantage of the iPhone 7's powerful new camera features.

Details of the upcoming update were shared by Instagram's head of design Ian Spalter during yesterday's Apple event in San Francisco, where he demonstrated how the app would make use of several of the new phones' capabilities.

First of all, the iPhone 7 Plus telephoto lens will be controllable simply by dragging a finger up and down in the Instagram camera window, allowing users to adjust the level of optical/digital zoom. Meanwhile, Apple's new Taptic Engine feedback will let users know how much zoom they've enabled when composing stills as well as during video recording.

Instagram is also revising all of its photo filters to take advantage of the iPhone 7 display's wider color gamut, allowing users to see a broader range of hues in their pictures.

Other additions revealed on stage included a 3D Touch action for the Instagram app icon that will let users quickly add a photo to an Instagram Story – the platform's new sharing feature aped from Snapchat.

Lastly, the app will make use of iOS 10's new Live Photos API to convert the video clips into Instagram Boomerang GIFs, which play back and forth on repeat.

The updated version of the app launches later this year, presumably after iOS 10 is released on September 13 and the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus have made it into consumers' hands. Preorders for the devices begin Friday, September 9, with shipments scheduled to start on September 16.