This week on Mobile Fun, we have been looking at an application that was meant to make using your cell phone camera more entertaining.
Instagram is a free photo-sharing application that have become quite popular lately, especially in my circle of friends. It allows you to not only take pictures but edit them, apply a digital filter to make pictures seem retro/hipster and upload it to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Created in October 2010 it has become largely affiliated with Facebook and has made in headlines recently after being accused of promoting self-harm.
The app itself is easy to use, you can either upload or take a picture with your phone, apply the four digital features to it ( Normal, Amaro, Rise, Hudson) and upload it to which ever social sites you choose. It seems to be a mobile clone of a photo sharing social networking site called Dailybooth (2009) which has the same premise but just for computers.
At first I thought Instagram only allowed you to follow your friends who were loaded in from Facebook, this wasn’t the case as there is a ‘Popular’ Thread. This feature allows you to view the pictures, profile and also follow those who are also using this application, but this is limited as there is no search link, you can only find those who are popular at the time. They do provide you with a way to find others using their user names but that is about it.
As all social networking sites do, they provide you with ways to protect yourself with a photo privacy setting. This means that, if activated, those who want to follow you, will have to ask first.
It is pretty cool to take pictures with a very retro look to them and if you have talent in photography then you could make some really awesome pictures. Instagram is free on Google Play for the Android and is also available on the iPhone and iPad, but not for Blackberry at the moment but keep an eye out.
As for myself, I’m not very talented when it comes to photography but I did have fun, taking pictures with this App:
