Here’s What A Slow-Motion Selfie On The iPhone 11 Really Looks Like

If you feel like your selfie game has been seriously lacking lately, there's a brand new photo trend coming with the iPhone 11 launch that could help you rack up Instagram likes. It's a slow-motion selfie video, or as Apple has nicknamed them, "slofies."

On Sept. 10 Apple announced that the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max would be available to customers later this month. The newest iPhones boast better cameras, more cameras (the iPhone 11 has two cameras and the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max both have three), improved battery life, and the sturdiest glass in a smartphone ever (though it's still not shatterproof, so proceed with caution).

The cameras also have a new interface with more options on the front-facing camera (aka selfie mode), including Portrait Mode and Slo Mo. Both of these settings aren't new for iPhone cameras — Portrait Mode first debuted on the iPhone 7+ and Slow Mo first made an appearance on the iPhone 5S — but this is the first time both of these camera features are available in selfie mode. So, instead of taking a selfie or a video, you can easily flip your phone into selfie mode and hit "Slo Mo" to record a slofie.

If you want to play around with just how slow your slofies are, you can go into settings, and pick 1080 HD at 120 frames per second or 1080 HD at 240 frames per second (240 is really slow).

So what are slofies actually good for? Apple's iPhone 11 promotional video shows a woman's hair blowing seemingly in the wind against a shiny backdrop in slow mo — but it's later revealed it's actually her younger brother holding up a hair dryer in front of her. Funny, but how many hair-in-the-air videos can you really take before your friends get annoyed or your followers stop liking them?

As I discovered when Apple offered Bustle the opportunity to try out the new iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max, there are a lot of fun (and weird) ways to play around with this video feature.

Because slow-mo videos also include sound, I first experimented with slofies on the iPhone 11 Pro Max (I changed my settings to 1080 HD at 120 frames per second) at Doug Aitken's Sonic Mountain 2019 at Donum Estate in Sonoma, California, which is filled with wind chimes. It took a couple of tries to get my slofie right because the chimes weren't moving fast enough, but once I started moving, it felt like I was capturing a 360-degree view of the mesmerizing scene. After a few more whimsical takes of spinning around and smiling to myself, I began to feel like I was starring in a rom-com.

Later on in the day, when I normally would've taken a landscape shot, I took advantage of the wind at Donum Estate and hopped into the frame for a slofie, where I was able to bring the beautiful background to life. (Second Slide)

Next, I tried my own take of Apple's promo video, with my hair blowing in the wind against a cool background (Richard Hudson's Love Me at Donum Estate) — but with actual wind, not a hair dryer. (Third slide)

Conclusion? A hair dryer may get you more likes.

Moving away from cool landscapes, I transformed the usual wedding dance floor video one posts to Instagram stories when they're mid-dance and refuse to stop singing into the camera into a slofie. The results are both amusing and horrifying. (Last slide)

While it remains to be seen what weird social media challenges will come out of this trend, for now if you need more slofie inspo, you could try taking off your sunglasses, spinning around in a chair, or swirling a glass of wine.

If you're not planning on getting an iPhone 11, you can still participate. Since the slow-motion video setting is available on older models starting with the iPhone 5S, instead of filming yourself in selfie mode you can just tap the Slo-Mo setting and use your back camera (aka how you used to do selfies back in the old days).

Regardless of what you call these slow-mo videos (some people are not down with the name "slofies") or whether you stick with your trusty iPhone 7 and slow-mo your selfie the old fashioned way, this new trend gives you a new way to step up your Instagram game — and have a good laugh at yourself in the process.

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the name of an artist and work at Donum Estate. It has been updated to remove incorrect information.