Instagram, that app that lets you take pictures with awesome filters and share it amongst your friends and followers on the social media channels, is finally opening the door just a little bit to collaborators. Sadly, the news isn’t that it will debut on the Android (I’ll get to that later), but rather Fast Company reports that it will allow Hipstamatic users to tag photos and publish them on the Instagram platform.
Instragram is notorious for only using one operating system (iOS—the one that powers iPhones, iPads and iPods) and keeping up a wall that only allows content to be disseminated from Instagram and Instagram only. This latest news is a giant step for the developers of the wildly popular app and yours truly hopes that this will mean more innovations in the future.
With 27 million users already, Instagram will benefit more with the alliance with the $1.99 app that filters your photos, which Mashable likens to a burgeoning social media network. While many of us at NMR and beyond rejoice over this partnership, I think that both companies should look at a few things to make it stronger:
Open It Up To Android (and Blackberry, Windows Phone, etc.)
C’mon guys, this is a no-brainer. My other friends that are not fortunate to have iPhones have been waiting for their operating system’s own version of Instagram, but so far have not heard any positive results until recently. At the South by Southwest Festival a couple of weeks ago, the innovators of Instagram announced that it would make its Android debut real soon. It’s two weeks already, so here’s hoping that the Instagram guys will release it for Android and the other smartphone operating systems real soon.
Instagram, Tear Down This Wall!
Have you noticed that you can share your Instagram photos on a myriad of social media channels? Did you also know that if you want to share a photo you took on the Facebook app, you can’t share it with your Instagram buddies? The app’s parternship with the retro-esque Hipstamatic is the first cracks in the wall that it has built around itself, but frankly, we think that walls only hinder growth. That wall must be torn down and let its users send photos from many other sources.
Make It Easier To Search Photos
When I tried using Instagram to find a certain photo for a recent article, my only search option was to find the photo based on the tag. Unfortunately for me, I had to wade through thousands upon thousands of photos based solely on that tag in order to find the right one that would work for the article. To make the Instagram experience worthwile, it shouldn’t be just looking at the latest awesome photos on the app but also find an image that you love without sifting through thousands of others in its path. Perhaps Instagram and Hipstamatic can make it easier to search photos based on date, tags, location, phrases and other categories so that great photos won’t be sucked into oblivion.
I love, actually hate the author’s comment. “My friends who are not fortunate enough to have a iphone” Wow you smug idiot. Android is a choice for me over iphone not as you would put it that for some reason like intelligence or class that I am unable to use a iphone. Really you lost me on the whole article because of that statement.
I think the author might have been deploying the age old technique known as sarcasm.
[…] s1.parentNode.insertBefore(s, s1); })(); Share on TumblrWith the recent news of Instagram and Hipstamatic teaming up, the photo sharing app looks like it will be increasing it’s already insane […]
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I hope the people at Instagram read this article!
I completely disagree on this post’s take on Instagram. Why should the company “tear down this wall” when it has become arguably the most popular social media on iOS?
Sure it’s frustrating to consumers to some degree, but look at its popularity. By opening it up to other OS, which they said they planned to do, it’ll only legitimize it as a valid social-media medium.
Thanks for your concerns sHecKii, but when I mean that the company should “tear down this wall,” I meant that they should open up to the possibility of having other sources use Instagram like having your Facebook photos on the platform. I never said anything about Instagram should be destroyed. Where did you get that suggestion?
Actually that’s exactly what I’m arguing against. I do NOT think Instagram should open up the possibility of integration with other social media.
Like I said, Instagram is arguably the most popular social media on iOS. That means on the, for example, iPhone, Instagram is more popular than Facebook, Twitter, etc…
From a strategic company standpoint, it would be so idiotic to allow other social media like Facebook and Twitter to take advantage of Instagram.
That’s why I completely disagree with your point. I actually never said Instagram should be destroyed. To be frank, I actually don’t know where you got that idea.
I understand where you’re coming from and I don’t think we’ll see eye to eye on that point. However, at least we can agree that it should be open to other OS like Android!