Over Thanksgiving weekend I made the leap and upgraded to an iPad2. One of the reasons I used to justify the purchase was the camera. My Mom also bought and iPad2 and I realized if I had one we could video chat. (Note: Please disregard the fact that both of our laptops and phones have cameras. It doesn’t help in the justification of the purchase.) Now that I have the camera in an iOS device a world of apps was opened up to me.
One of those is Instagram, an app I had admired from afar as an Android user. I’ve been using it for about 2 weeks now and I love it. Here are the top reasons I fell in love with Instagram:
Single location to view photos: Each photograhy app uploads photos to different locations. Not all apps let you pick from all of the regular sites (yfrog, twitpic..). Who doesn’t enjoy looking back through the photos they have tweeted or tumbld? When they are on different sites you just don’t get that same experience.
Upload to multiple social networks at once: There are other apps that let you do this and there are some the don’t. Instagram makes it really easy to select which social network your photo will post to, if any. They just need to add Google+.
It’s social: This is one feature I didn’t realize until I started using it. Instagram itself is a social network. You can follow friends, family, celebs… anyone with a public profile. Within the app you can comment and “like” photos. It’s a fun way to stay connected via photos. You can see which photos from other users your friends “liked”. There is even a popular page that holds the most “liked” photos. (Unfortunately, most of those are self portraits of girls trying to look sexy or photoshopped images I could see on Pintrest or Tumblr).
Easy navigation between choosing a photo in your library or to use the camera: This is something other a few other apps make VERY difficult. Since I don’t have an iPhone it comes in really handy. Photos from my computer are saved in my Apple photo stream so I can use those to upload to Instagram. (Another reason I love this is that the iPad is not the easiest to take a picture with… unless you want it a little fuzzy. Did I mention I have no upper body strength?)
Hashtag weekend project: Instagram seems to be about bringing out the photographer in each of us. Each week a theme or topic is selected. As someone who fancies herself a wanna be photographer, I think this will be a fun way to challenge myself to look for interesting shots and view the world a little differently. Click here to check it out.
The best news is that they are working on an Android version. No details around release date or when they will begin work on it were announced, but I think the app will be even better when more of my friends can join!
Table set up for a holiday cookie decorating party I hosted this past weekend
