Instagram Moves with the Trends

Once again, Mark Zuckerberg is taking the reins with his Facebook and conquering all social media. Monday he announced that Facebook will acquire Instagram for $1 billion. Facebook stands as the number one social networker, and now the site is headed towards an even higher victory after the purchase of this trendy and hip smartphone app.

Instagram is a photo app allowing users to select vintage and rare photo filters and apply those esthetics to their personal photography. With its Twitter-esque type of following and unfollowing, your followers can like, comment and share photos.  Even the amateur photographer can turn photos into a professional image. Since Instagram currently has over 30 million users, will the app lose some of them? Or, gain millions more since Zuckerberg is now in full control?  

If you’re one to steer away from the socials of Facebook media, Business Review USA has scouted out and tried two smartphone photo apps that are similar in appeal and taste to that of Instagram’s likeness.

Hipstamatic: Probably the first app to release vintage photography on smart phones. One can experience photo filters and followers as well as being able to share, send and like all images. With Hipstamatic you can swap lenses, filters and cameras before taking your photo so one experiences the full faux-vintage film camera straight from the iPhone.

PicYou: Similar to Instragram’s interface. There are numerous filters to edit images. Users share, send and save all photos within the app. The main perk of PicYou is the concept of downloading all personal images from the web on PicYou’s website. The app is easy to use and allows one to edit each photo to that of a professional and artistic feel.

The downfall and difference to these “similar to Instragram apps” is one must pay a price to play. Hipstamtic requires its users to fork up a buck for more film and its array of antique cameras. PicYou is quite similar in that one pays a fee ($1) for its different artistic filters.

And, Zuckerberg states, the free app of Instagram will not change its esthetics and it will be entirely separate from Facebook’s domain. The question remains, how long will Instagram continue as its own unique photo sharer?