The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2024
Insta360 Flow Pro brings AI subject tracking into the iPhone's native camera app
The first DockKit gimbal: Apple's tracking inside the native iPhone camera and 200+ iOS apps, with NFC one-tap pairing — no vendor app required.
Insta360
What it had to solve
Insta360's first Flow gimbal tracked subjects well, but only inside the Insta360 app — which meant iPhone users lost Apple's cinema modes and ProRes while filming. Founder JK Liu wanted tracking to work everywhere the phone already worked.
How it works
Smartphone gimbals usually confine their clever AI tracking to the maker's own app, so iPhone users had to leave Apple's native camera — and lose features like cinema modes and ProRes — just to keep a subject in frame. Insta360's Flow Pro was built to end that compromise.
Flow Pro is the first gimbal integrated with Apple DockKit, the subject-tracking framework shown at WWDC 2024. An NFC tap pairs the phone, and from then on tracking works inside the native camera app and more than 200 third-party iOS apps such as FaceTime, Zoom and TikTok; a ring light glows when the subject is locked, and 360-degree infinite pan keeps following as the creator moves.
It kept the all-in-one design of the original Flow — built-in selfie stick, tripod and 2,900 mAh power bank in a pocket-folding body — and added pet tracking and gesture control. RedShark noted the launch solved Flow's main drawback, and Insta360 shipped it worldwide at $149.
Why it lands
- Tracking inside the native camera means creators never trade Apple's best modes for stabilization — the gimbal upgrades the phone instead of replacing its workflow.
- DockKit is Apple's own framework, so pairing, reliability and future iOS support come from the platform, not from Insta360's app.
- NFC one-tap pairing removes setup friction, and automatic reconnection makes the gimbal feel like part of the phone.
- Two hundred-plus supported apps extend the benefit beyond video to calls and live streams — every place the phone already records.
What it did
Insta360 shipped Flow Pro worldwide at $149, and RedShark noted it removed the original Flow's central drawback — AI tracking now works in Apple's native app and third-party apps instead of forcing users into Insta360's own software.
What you can take
Work inside the platform users already trust: building on Apple's DockKit made the gimbal an invisible upgrade to the iPhone rather than another proprietary tool to learn.
Since then
Launched in July 2024, Flow Pro became the reference for DockKit hardware, and Insta360 pushed the idea further with the Flow 2 Pro, which added NFC pairing for Android and Deep Track 4.0; the founding move — tracking inside the native camera, not a vendor silo — became the template for its subsequent gimbals.
Sources
- Meet Insta360 Flow Pro: The First AI Tracking Stabilizer With Apple DockKit for iPhone
- Insta360 introduces Apple-friendly Flow Pro gimbal
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