What can users Expect from the Instagram App that is now available for the Android

We all have been hearing about Instagram a lot these days and why not? Recently, 12th April 2012, to be exact, Facebook acquired it for $1 billion, making it a much talked about topic in the tech-world. This photo-sharing app has caught the fancy of many users worldwide, with around 30 million active users on the Instagram social network. Over a short span of time, its popularity has spread far and wide and now it has finally made its way to the Android OS.

Why is Instagram so popular?

Using Instagram is a child’s play. All you need to do is click any photo, add a digital filter of your choice and share it across Instagram network or other Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or Foursquare. It is that simple. Therefore, even an amateur photographer can enhance his/her photos like a pro by giving it a makeover through these filters, and share it online.

Instagram for Android

Earlier available only on the iOS platform, the mobile-only photo streaming app is now available on the Android platform (as mentioned above). It can be downloaded for free, from Google Play for devices with Android 2.2 and above. It is an apt merger of two most popular technologies present today( Android and Instagram )and I am sure, that the Instagram app will make an even greater impact on Android based devices.

Android users, new to the app, can simply sign up for Instagram by providing their e-mail ID, username and password and opt to link the Instagram account with other social networking accounts like Facebook, Foursquare, Tumblr and Twitter. Even then, at the time of clicking a photo, it asks your permission for sharing it on your preferred account(s); you need not log in separately from each of these accounts to share your photos.

Fret not, if you don’t want to share your photos on any of these accounts the photos will automatically become live on your Instagram profile and be available on the feeds of your followers.

So, what else is in store for Instagram users?

When you have completed the Instagram sign up process, you can snap photos with the Instagram camera; the specialties of this camera are simple flash controls and a camera switch button. With a single tap, this button switches between front facing and rear facing cameras, providing ease of clicking photos. However, a puzzling fact is that, you get no spot focusing, cropping or zooming options after completion of a shot, even though it is possible to carry out these functions on other photos that are imported from other apps into the Instagram app.

Instagram provides as many as 18 digital filters to enhance the photos taken by you. A point to be noted here is this that, all of these filters give a similar kind of retro look to the photos. The only other options are to rotate, add borders and adjust brightness.

As compared to the iPhone version of the Instagram, Android users do not have a Live Preview option to see the filters before snapping a photo. This is something, every Android user is hoping for along with the Tilt Shift/Blur feature, which gives the photos a Toy Camera Effect.  Maybe, we can hope to see these additions in the upcoming Instagram updates on the Android platform.

Adding to the magic of the Instagram is its huge user network.  You can have access to a large number of users and follow them on its Feed page; view a huge number of popular photos that are creating hype on the Instagram site. If you are someone with a keen interest in the art of photography and have some sense of taking aesthetically shot photos, you too can generate a huge number of followers and interact with them easily on the Instagram network.

Even if you are not click-happy, you can always download this interesting app on your Android smartphones and use it to browse the photos posted by other users in the community. Alternatively, you can simply enhance your photos in some other app and share via Instagram app; do whatever suits you best.