What is a boomerang video?
A boomerang video is a very short clip that plays forward and then backward, over and over. A glass clinks, the drink jumps back out of the glass, and the toast happens again. Because the backward half ends on the same frame the clip starts with, the loop has no visible jump.
The name comes from Instagram's Boomerang feature, which made the format popular for Stories. Today people call any forward and backward loop a boomerang, whatever app made it. The format works best for one small action with a clear start and end.
Pick a moment that bounces well
The best boomerangs show one quick action. A jump, a hair flip, a splash, confetti thrown into the air, a dog catching a treat or two glasses meeting in a toast all look great when they run backward. Slow scenes with little movement look like a frozen photo, so the effect gets lost.
Keep the camera as still as you can. If the camera pans while the subject moves, the backward half feels shaky rather than fun. One to two seconds is usually enough, and the finished clip is twice as long as the part you choose for every bounce.
Start the selection just before the action begins and end it right at the peak. A jump should stop at the highest point, a toss when the object is in the air. That way the reverse half starts on the most interesting frame.
Settings explained
Every setting is optional. The defaults (2 seconds, 1x speed, 2 bounces, no sound) give a classic boomerang for most clips. Here is what each one changes.
- Length: 1, 1.5, 2 or 3 seconds of your clip. Longer selections use more memory, which matters on older phones.
- Speed: 1x keeps real time. 1.5x and 2x make the bounce faster and the finished file shorter.
- Bounces: how many forward and back cycles go into one file. Pick 3 if the app you post to does not loop short videos on its own.
- Sound: off, or the original sound played forward and then in reverse. Reversed speech sounds odd, so music and background noise work better.
- Format: MP4 when your browser can record it, otherwise WebM. The picture keeps the shape of your clip and is scaled to at most 720 pixels on the long side.
Posting your boomerang on Instagram, TikTok and Stories
The file you download is a normal video, so you can post it anywhere you post videos. On Instagram and Facebook, add it as a Story or a Reel. On TikTok, upload it like any other clip and add text or music in the app.
Very short videos do not loop smoothly everywhere. If you see a pause before the clip starts again, make a new version with 2 or 3 bounces so the file is longer. A vertical phone clip stays vertical and a landscape clip stays landscape, so there are no black bars added by us.
You can also send the MP4 straight into WhatsApp, iMessage or Telegram. A short video file is usually much smaller than a GIF of the same length and keeps better colors.
Your video stays on your device
This tool reads your video with your browser's own video player, copies the frames you picked into memory and records the new loop locally. Nothing is sent to our servers, and closing the tab clears everything. We never see your clip and keep no copy of it.
Because the work happens on your device, speed depends on your phone or computer. Reading frames takes a few seconds, and recording runs in real time, so a 6 second boomerang takes about 6 seconds to record. Keep the tab open and in front while it records, or the browser may pause it.
No clip yet? Turn a photo into a video first
Boomerangs need movement, and sometimes all you have is a photo. TapToVideo can animate a still picture into a short AI video: upload the photo, describe the motion and watch a free preview without signing up. Downloading the AI video uses credits from a one-time pack, with no subscription.
Once you have the clip, bring it back here and turn the best second into a boomerang. Our AI video effects, like the dance, muscle flex or car drift effects, make short clips with one clear action, which is exactly what bounces well.
Animate it into a short video, then come back and make it a boomerang.