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speedtenk
11 Alternative apps to Instagram. For those who jumped the Instagram ship but still want to share pictures
So, Instagram just got snapped up by Facebook huh? That was quite a surprise to be fair, and not everyone is particularly happy about it. It’s actually been a rollercoaster of a week for Instagram. It began with them launching their popular service onto the Android platform which was met with howls of joy. Then Android users realised it was, by all accounts, pretty poor, ourselves included. And then iPhone users got all offended and many opened up a vitrolic attack on Instagram for letting Android users into “their†network (which is a tad arrogant considering even the latest iPhone is far behind the curve of the top Android devices). And then along comes Facebook and thumps $ 1 billion dollars on the table (I’m sure it would have been a careful bank transfer of funds via automated accounts and stock options but hey, it’s much more fun to imagine it was real cash on a real table!).
To suggest this would be taken well by both the Android and Apple communities would be a gross misunderstanding. Searching Twitter for #instagram hashtags indicated more of a mass exodus from the service than welcoming the Facebook involvement. What will happen next? Will your pictures now include adverts down the side? Will there be colossal privacy concerns now that Zuckerberg can probably use your Instagram content for his own profit? Will you have to log into Instagram using your Facebook account in the future? All these worries have caused many people to jump ship, but where to? You’ve got all that creative juice inside you, how will you share your pictures now? Here are 11 popular alternative apps with download links all more than capable of filling that void of Instagram…
Lightbox Photos
Lightbox Photos is one of my favourite photo sharing apps and for good reason. It comes with a smorgasbord of filters and the UI is melt-in-your-mouth buttery. It lets you share your pictures with Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and Tumblr. It will also save your edited creations to SD card so you can share to any other social network via your gallery. It’s lots of fun and feels amazing to use- the aesthetics alone will wow you enough to take your mind of Instagram.
Streamzoo
Streamzoo is another awesome alternative that even looks a little like Instagram, only with lots more features. You can add filters, borders and tilt-shift effects to your pictures and upload them to the busy site or share them to other social networks. There is a strong community feel to Streamzoo and popular photos can earn you points. Your points are tallied together and you might even get onto the weekly leaderboard! It’s also easy to use and navigate. We initially reviewed this one a while ago, but have given it an update to reflect the many improvements the app has had in recent months.
Picplz
picplz is another perennial favourite and one of the first photo sharing apps available on Android. There is a good community element to the app and it’s easy to use. The UI is also pretty cool and is very smooth to use. Not only can you share your pictures with friends and followers on the platform itself, the app also lets you share it on Facebook, Twitter, Posterous, FourSquare and Tumblr.
Hipster
Hipster is a cool picture postcard creator and sharing app. Simply take a snap or upload from your gallery. Add text, edit and add a cool filter and share! You can share across your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr and Foursquare. Simple to use and with some very cool effects, Hipster is a neat way to share postcards and picture messages on your Android device.
Minus
Minus is a very cool app indeed. Not only can you share your pictures within the sociable app itself, you can also edit it in a variety of ways using the Avairy plug-in. This is all within a slick and rich user interface which is a joy to use. It also serves other purposes too as you can share video, documents and music files. Check out our review here, and their cool video below.
LiveShare
LiveShare is developed by Cooliris, and lets you share your pictures through their service via the use of streams. These can be public or private, meaning friends and strangers can contribute to a stream with a specific focus, like a concert or a holiday. There’s not much in the way of editing features or filters within LiveShare but if the sharing part of Instagram was your favourite element, this is definitely worth a look.
Now, I would refer to the above as ‘sharing platforms’, they host your pictures and allow you to share them both on their own site, but also via other social networks. If you think you can live without that kind of ‘platform’ but still like photo editing, then why not check out this lot:
Pixlr-o-matic
Pixlr-o-matic is a powerful and very user friendly photo editing suite which has proved massively popular on the Android platform. You can add all kind of cool filters and effects in a carefully designed app that kind of looks like a photo processing darkroom. You can also do exactly the same thing via their web service and it’s just incredibly extensive and fun to use.
FX Photo Editor
FX Photo Editor is another app we reviewed quite recently. Whereas so many photo sharing and photo editing tools plump for a number of filters, some frames, a cropping tool. etc., FX Photo Editor offers this and a whole lot more. Intuitive, resourceful and packed full of features, it’s the perfect app if you like to tweak your snaps.
Camera360 Ultimate
Another fine little photo editing suite is Camera360 Ultimate which we reviewed a few weeks ago. While it has been around for a while Camera360 Ultimate has recently received a comprehensive update that has improved UI, options and functionality across the entire application. If you like adding fiters, manipulating and sharing images- this is an awesome app to check out.
Paper Camera
Paper Camera is an awesome little application that adds extremely cool filters to your pictures and videos in real-time. This means you can really see how the images will look. Plus we have it on sale in our Android app store!
Camera Zoom FX
Finally, Camera Zoom FX is a bona fide camera replacement app in its own right, one which I know many Android users employ instead of their own native cameras. However, it also lets you import your own gallery images and edit them in a wide number of ways. There is everything you’d expect and more in this feature-rich app which you can also download additional plugins for. The app has been around forever, so check out our review of it.
So there you have it; a veritable feast of options to gorge on if you’ve given up the Instagram. From dedicated community platforms to intuitive and useful photo editing tools that allow you to tweak and enhance as much as you like. Definitely check a few out and see what you think! Also, if we’ve missed a belter- tell us about it in the comments below. 
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