What the heck is Boomerang?

No, it's not the Australian tool that comes whipping back to you when you chuck it, and no, it's not the Gmail email scheduling app, and no, it's not Cartoon Network's channel that shows re-runs from old cartoons.

A video posted by cella lao rousseau (@hellorousseau) on Dec 17, 2015 at 3:19pm PST

Boomerang is a fairly new app from social media giant Instagram that breaks the boundaries on what social media content is supposed to be. How? Well to quote Instagram, "It's not a photo. It's not a gif. It's a Boomerang."

Boomerang works by taking a super short, super fast burst of photos and stitching them together into a mini video that plays forward and backward and forward and backward and—well, you get the idea.

A video posted by cella lao rousseau (@hellorousseau) on Mar 3, 2016 at 2:34pm PST

The app first picked up speed with social media influencers (like the Jenner sisters) and has even encouraged some friendly competition amongst other popular photo-editing apps. VCSO, an app aimed at photo editing for more serious iPhoneographers, recently unveiled DSCO, "a free GIF-making app designed with VSCO's superior imaging technology."

A video posted by cella lao rousseau (@hellorousseau) on Nov 22, 2015 at 10:58am PST

One thing that's given Instagram the edge with Boomerang, however, is that when users upload their Boomerangs directly to their account, a little message automatically appears under the video saying "Made with Boomerang" (which is also a helpful tool to avoid getting comments like, "Woah holy smokes thisisthebesthingI'veseenhowdoImakeone?" or "NEW EDITING APP WHAT'S DIS?")