Instance (formerly Itsdagram)
Daniel Gary
I’ve never been much on an Instagram user myself, but when I saw Instance (formerly Itsdagram) launch on Windows Phone it filled me with intrigue. I had formerly used Instagram a few times on both Android and iOS but never to such a huge extent.
Firstly, the app is one of the best looking apps I’ve ever seen on any platform — it’s clean and functional, with everything laid out as you would expect.
Posting photos was incredibly simple, although there were only 12 filters compared to the official app’s 19. That said, the 12 filters that you do get are incredible, and you don’t even have to update the app to get brand new filters, with new ones being added all the time in the back-end of the app.
I was tempted to give Instance 5 stars, but felt that it crashed on me one too many times, and the comments were darn right confusing — with your caption being counted as a comment (and there I thought I was popular). I also couldn’t find any way to tag your friends, which would have been nice, but as this was only recently added to the official apps, I can forgive the developer for this one.
A lot of users are reporting that the “find friends” feature isn’t functioning, although I found it to work just fine, allowing me to select multiple friends and follow them all at once.
Whilst trying out Instance, I decided to take a look at an alternative service called “PhotoPlay“, and whilst I loved the UI, I found the lack of users rendered the application obsolete.
I find it hard to not recommend Instance if you want an Instagram app on your Windows Phone, it’s a fully functional app that is clean and quick, with a great selection of filters.
At only £1.29, the paid version isn’t expensive — although if you don’t mind a few ads, then the free version will suit you just fine.