Developer finds video code in Instagram

Even if it’s not part of Facebook’s big announcement on June 20, it appears that video is a possibility for Instagram. Developer Tom Waddington posted on his blog that he dug deep into Instagram’s code, finding hints the photo-sharing service may add video soon.

Waddington wrote that he found video code when he was going through Instagram’s application programming interface, as well as images for play, pause and volume control. This gives more weight to the recent rumors that Facebook will attempt to compete with Twitter’s popular video-sharing program Vine by adding similar capabilities to Instagram.

He noted that the mute button stored in the code for a photo-sharing app is the big giveaway that Instagram is working on adding video — if not now, then definitely in the near future.

Here’s what tipped off Waddington to the potential for video within Instagram:

Despite this, Waddington doesn’t think that the June 20 announcement is about video on Instagram:

I’d be doubtful that the event invitations sent out could be anything to do with Instagram. Facebook needs a strong launch for their next product. I can’t see a coffee-cup stain connecting with video features.

My best guest would be a Flipboard competitor – Facebook wants to get a coffee-cup’s worth of time each morning. Monthly Active Users is a tough metric to keep growing – the next most important measurement would be Time On Site. A Flipboard-style section, with top social articles, content from RSS feeds and stories from sites you’ve Liked could easily become a daily destination to catch up on the web. And, it’d be sure to push up Time On Site, and, in turn, possible revenue from advertisers.