Instagram, the popular photo sharing app on iOS and Android, has been in the news a lot recently. Apart from being bought by Facebook for a Billion dollars and releasing an Android app, the service was down for a fair bit of time thanks to the recent AWS outage. The iOS app has gone through a few updates recently and has received a few subtle changes as well. However, Instagram’s photo page on the web which had pretty much stayed untouched has finally undergone a very nice update this past week.
Not only did it receive a beautiful visual overlift with a nice blue coat of paint, it also gained a few important features. Users who are logged in to the web interface can now comment and ‘like’ pictures on the brand new photo page for each image or follow users. The theme is similar to Instagram’s blue and white mobile apps. However, the website is still quite limited overall as it only lets you edit your profile and not actually create accounts or upload photos.
Also missing is the ability to view a user’s profile or the other photos he has shared.
I really love it when big brands put in the extra effort with improvements like this. Subtle tweaks to the overall color scheme add to the whole experience. I can’t help but hope Facebook learns something from a company they have acquired and improve their own apps and the site. For now, don’t hesitate to click on someone’s instagram link on twitter because the photo page is a nice step towards the unification of the mobile apps and website for Instagram.