Introducing Instagram for Windows Phone

http://blog.instagram.com/post/67574689360/instagramforwindowsphone

by antr • 13 years ago

64 50 13 years ago

blog.instagram.com

Zaheer• 13 years ago

This conveniently rolls out at around the same time as sponsored updates. It's important to note that there are a lot of Instagram clients on Windows Phone already including the more popular 6tag (http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/6tag/7d795cdf-fb...).

One of 6tag's features is supposedly 'hide sponsored posts (beta)' which really highlights the urgency as to why Instagram would need to build their own client.

jbigelow765• 13 years ago

    >One of 6tag's features is supposedly 'hide sponsored posts (beta)' which really highlights the urgency as to why Instagram would need to build their own client.

It would take all of 10 minutes for Instagram to shut down 6tag if they decided to kill it because of the ad hiding feature.

All they would have to do is call Microsoft and tell them to shut it down, an OFFICIAL Instagram client has been one of the "must haves" for the platform and is often cited when tech pundits complain about the anemic Windows Phone app ecosystem. If Microsoft caved on their own WP Youtube app that hid ads they wouldn't hesitate to nuke an indie dev's app if it threatened the adoption of WP with a high profile service provider like Instagram.

seivan2• 13 years ago

Not refuting what you're saying but also... they could just kill the API keys.

bri3d• 13 years ago

I would be shocked if the timing on this release wasn't at least tangentially related to sponsored posts.

I think this is going one of two ways: Either the official client is a quick bid to incentive Microsoft to remove 6tag the same way Microsoft replaced their YouTube app with a gutted one, or Instagram think their official client is going to rapidly eclipse the "knockoffs" and they won't have to worry about it.

Keep in mind that while Microsoft did cave on their own YouTube app, it wasn't in exchange for nothing at all. They still got to keep a gutted "official" YouTube client in order to fill checkboxes in pundit comparison reviews.

sc902• 13 years ago

Coming next to Windows Phone: Snapchat with photos that stick around forever.

fragmede2• 13 years ago

Snaphack's already available on iOS and Android, doing a WP release would just be bringing it up to parity.

sc902• 13 years ago

Your missing the point.

jbigelow765• 13 years ago

No need, the NSA is already archiving them for us.

sirkneeland5• 13 years ago

I think we need a HN corollary to Godwin's law to describe the near certainty that every HN thread will eventually have someone mentioning the NSA.

iLoch• 13 years ago

So is Snapchat...

untog• 13 years ago

Yeah, I saw that tweet too: https://twitter.com/m4tt/statuses/403227577151918080

cabbeer• 13 years ago

Now what's the next big app that's still missing?

jbigelow765• 13 years ago

If you are talking about "official" apps, then it would be Snapchat and probably Youtube.

donretag• 13 years ago

For me: Strava (although workarounds exist) and Pebble connectivity.

schandur• 13 years ago

I'd go with Mint.

sirkneeland5• 13 years ago

mint.com is coming. I got an invite to the beta for WP8 and Win8.

beauzero• 13 years ago

...an official remote access client and the ability to join a domain (file browser). They have a huge opportunity to make this the phone of business but they are so intent on playing catch-up to Android and iOS. I just can't figure it out.

DangerousPie• 13 years ago

Google Hangouts.

sirkneeland5• 13 years ago

Google will not be bringing their apps to Windows Phone anytime soon, since their interest in helping Windows Phone is zero and the market size is currently small enough that Google believes it can safely ignore it.

It will be up to Microsoft to prove them wrong. If Microsoft can continue to grow the number of countries where WP has already relegated iOS to 3rd place, perhaps there could be some sort of tipping point. But that's a ways off...

jeremymcanally• 13 years ago

Bizarre choice to launch without core features like image and video capture. I understand the anxiousness to launch, but I wonder if this was somehow due to pressure from Microsoft or investors or something to launch before the app was actually ready?

I like that they're using the platform to its fullest with the live tiles and what not, but it's still strange.

truhd• 13 years ago

It does image capture as well as selection.

Metrop02182• 13 years ago

The 'no image capture' story is not true. Apparently there was some bad information given out by an Instagram public rep. See https://twitter.com/zpower for more info.

Hovertruck• 13 years ago

I installed it. The "forgot password" feature doesn't work, so after I finally guessed my password I noticed that it was showing the text I entered in the password field in plain text. I want to go back and see if I can reproduce this, but I can't find an option to sign out of the app anywhere.

sondh• 13 years ago

Some mobile app does that on purpose because people tend to make typo when the password is masked. I think it is not a very bad practice considering you entered it a few times already. People who want your password can look at your fingers to guess it anyway.

It's worth noting that I'm not related in anyway to Instagram. I also haven't downloaded the app, yet. I was speaking in common sense.

hexasquid• 13 years ago

I like 'show password' buttons.

blahbl4hblahtoo• 13 years ago

That's awesome...I really like windows phone. I have had several Iphone's and used one android phone at work and WP is just hands down better...of course, I don't use as many apps as a lot of other people. I mainly use the web browser which is awesome.

cfqycwz• 13 years ago

Maybe it's just me, but this app seems to ignore basically all of Microsoft's Metro UI guidelines except for "make things flat." Looks more like an iOS7 or Android app to me than something truly thoughtfully designed for the WP platform.

austinl• 13 years ago

For those that are curious, this release is 3 years + 1 month after the initial iOS release, and 1 year + 8 months after Android.

sirkneeland5• 13 years ago

Better late than never, I suppose...

gtirloni• 13 years ago

Market dynamics. Windows Phone is only gaining traction now so it makes sense to invest now, not before (unless we want to be a beta testar of the platform).

MasterScrat• 13 years ago

An official Instagram app for iPads would be better news.

jorgem2• 13 years ago

One of the reasons my WP is a POS is that when I search for "instragram" in the App Marketplace, the actual intstagram beta app is like the 20th thing.

How can a single word search for an app with basically one word in the name have such bad search results???

pilsetnieks• 13 years ago

Because it is just launched and has comparatively few clicks and downloads. As of now (30 minutes after your comment,) it is already second. I imagine that in no more than a couple of hours it should be the first.

teh_klev• 13 years ago

Maybe your spelling of "instagram" wasn't quite right, as evidenced by the two mis-spell's in your comment above: "instragram" and "intstagram".

Not trying to be cheeky, but that could be why.

justncase80• 13 years ago

lol! That must be it because it's #2 in my search results, under 6tag, atm.

jorgem2• 13 years ago

Maybe, but 30 other apps did better in search for mispelling of instagram -- and they were all related to instagram.

Anyway, it soon jumped to #2 like for everyone else.

Introducing Instagram for Windows Phone

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