instagram

Instagram is here for Windows Phone, unofficially at least now that Itsdagram is in the Store. But if there’s one thing we like, it's competition. And soon we’ll see another app in the Store that will allow you to upload, view, comment and more to Instagram. We’ve already told you that Instagraph and Metrogram have plans to join forces. Here’s your first sneak peak.

Ain’t competition grand? In the race to have the most full featured Instagram client for Windows Phone, we now have a few developers working on various projects. While we told you Instagraph was updated today with Windows Phone 7.x support, Itsdagram is doing quite a few maneuvers too.

Daniel Gary, the developer behind the app, expects the paid version to go live this Friday. For those who paid for the early beta version, no worries as that carries over to this release so there will be no need to repurchase.

Instagraph is an unofficial Instagram app for Windows Phone, which enables consumers to upload and share photos with other users. Utilising a workaround to get past restrictions with Instagram APIs, the team has gone from only allowing a limited number of submissions to no limits at all. The team has improved its service since launch and an update is planned for the near future.

It’s been awhile since we’ve shared any updates on Itsdagram, the full-featured Instagram client for Windows Phone that is being written by Daniel Gary as we speak.

The app's development is rolling right along with regular updates (private beta, sorry) and we figured we would share some of it with you.

Nokia has updated its protest app, #2InstaWithLove with yet another filter. As the name suggests, the company is shouting out to Instagram, who still have not released an official app with all the bells and whistles for Windows Phone. The new filter is Nightshot, which (again, as the name suggests) is an effect that makes a photo look like it was taken in low light conditions.

There are a few criticisms levied against Instagraph, the third party “work around” for Instagram on Windows Phones, including price, upload limits and feature set. That last one is a bit interesting because as of right now, users can only upload photos to Instagram but they would need another app to view their friends’ feed, comment, share photos, etc.

That’s coming to an end though as Metrogram and Instagraph are air-high-fiving to bring a single use system. We’ve actually been privy to the info for awhile (shocked?) but it wasn’t our place to announce the news. But now the developer behind Metrogram, a highly stylized Instagram viewer that we recently covered, has posted a pic teasing the pseudo-merger (see above).

Although the whole Instagram brouhaha is still going on with Windows Phone, Nokia has kindly updated their universal Windows Phone app #2InstaWithLove with a new filter.

The new effect is called HandCam and it adds a reddish hue along with saturated darks to the image it is applied too (as opposed to the more yellow Polaroid look). It still keeps with the retro-Instagram style while giving users a bit more flexibility for image creativity.

What’s that? We almost went a day without discussing the Windows Phone unofficial Instagram app, Instagraph? We’ll fix that by mentioning how it has been, well, fixed.

We reported yesterday that there were two issues affecting users, including a placeholder image being occasionally used in place of a submitted photo and long delays in publishing. Luckily, both issues have seemingly been fixed as queuing for uploads has been reduced to less than 5 minutes (from our experience) and the placeholder posting bug was also squashed.

Whether you like it or not, Instagram is here to stay as a social network. Whatever plans Facebook has in the future are irrelevant, today it’s a huge platform for a lot of users. Its presence (or absence) makes or breaks potential smartphone purchases by the active 90 million users. Windows Phone still doesn’t have an official app, but Instagraph is a good workaround for right now. From the forums, here’s another slightly more involved way to get pictures up to Instagram without using an iPhone or Android device.