Instagram has updated its Hyperlapse app, adding the ability to snap time-lapse videos using the front-facing camera. That's right. You can now take selfielapses.

Hyperlapse is an iOS-only standalone app that simplifies the process of time-lapse photography, a cinematography technique in which video played back at a normal speed appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing. Before the Instagram team debuted Hyperlapse last month, creating a timelapse video with your smartphone was both tedious and hard. In fact the advent of smartphones has made easier the process as well.

Time-lapses traditionally requires expensive camera equipment, accessories, and software, and most photographers primarily used the technique to capture and then speed up certain things such as a sky view rolling from day to night. But with Hyperlapse, it's a breeze to shoot and share time-lapse videos, opening the door to many more possibilities...including selfielapses.

If you want to learn how to snap selfielapses, keep reading. Pocket-lint has detailed everything you need to know.

Here's how to take a selfielapse:

Record

1. Download the Hyperlapse app from Apple's App Store. It's free and optimised for iPhone 5.

2. Open Hyperlapse. If this is your first time launching Hyperlapse, the app will display examples.

3. Tap an icon on the app's home screen to toggle from the rear-facing camera to the front camera.

4. Once the front-facing camera is selected, tap on the white shutter button to record a video.

5. Tap the white shutter button again to stop recording. Simples.

Edit

6. Notice the two time indicators underneath the shutter button: the left one shows the total time recorded, and the right one shows length at the default speed of 6x.

7. Don't attempt to stabilise a selfielapse yourself. There's an always-on stabilisation feature in the app that can't be disabled.

8. Once you stop recording a video, the edit mode will launch. You will see a slide that lets you adjust the speed of the video, ranging from 1x to 12s.

9. Now you can see a preview of your video. Just touch the screen as your video plays to see the unstabilised version.

Share

10. After admiring your video and its stabilised-glory, you can select the check mark on the preview screen to save it to your camera roll.

11. A prompt should follow, giving you options to share to Instagram or Facebook.

Save

12. If you don't want to save or share the video immediately, tap the red "X" button on the preview.

13. You will then see options to edit later (save the video within Hyperlapse for editing later) or you could simply delete the video altogether.

14. To access your saved videos within Hyperlapse, tap the blue circle on the record screen.

That's it. Just keep in mind you can’t switch between selfielapse and Hyperlapse while recording. For more information, visit Instagram's support page for Hyperlapse.