Instagram for Android: All the Hate in a Nutshell
Instagram for Android is finally here and you can download it to your device immediately. However, it took for this photo sharing social network to break its iPhone exclusivity and release the Android version.
If you’ve just tuned in – Instagram is a mobile photo application / social network which allows you to make great photos with easily applyable filters and photo effects like tilt-shift, luminate, adding frames etc. Once captured and edited, you would upload your photo to your Instagram profile and share it across your social media channels. That is – if you owned an iPhone because Instagram was iPhone-only app.
There were rumors that Instagram will be available for the Android platform as well, but no one was sure when exactly. It was a lot like Flash on the iPhone – we’ve all been expecting it, hearing rumors about it and reasons why it will be available, but nothing more than that.
Suddenly, an interview Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom gave The Guardian confirmed how Instagram is coming to Android:
And third? Android. Systrom says that every day, Instagram gets a barrage of requests from people for an Android version of its app. The good news is that it’s on the horizon.
“It’s hugely important to us, but we’re only six people,” he says. “Android is a major priority for us, but first we have to build the team, and find the best people in the world to work on these projects.” The company is currently hiring engineers and designers to help it move more quickly on all three of these aims.
Yep, this interview was held in August 2011, to give you some perspective on how long Android users had to wait.
Eppur si Muove
Finally, after a long wait, the sign-up form was published. You could sign up for the beta access only a few days before it was released. Not long after, the Instagram for Android was here – download it from Google Play for free – or find out more about it on its official site.
When Galileo Galilei announced its famous observation “Eppur si muove“, he got a lot of criticism. The history repeats itself, however, not in that scale. When Instagram for Android was released, current iPhone users could be divided into 2 groups: supporters (or even those who just didn’t care) and haters. Some douchy iPhone users felt their “privilege” of having Instagram was somehow damaged and not knowing better, they wrote quite a few horrible tweets aimed at Instagram newcomers from Android. Some users at The Verge forum gathered and even created a dummy Twitter account which retweets those douchy hate-tweets:
If you have been looking around twitter, there is a lot of Android users on Instagram hate. So to combat that, I made an account retweeting and exposing said people. This is going to be fun.
Haters Gonna Hate
Of course – haters will hate; if you’re a fresh Instagram for Android user – feel very welcome! The community is filled with nice people and nice photos are the only thing that matters there.
Instagram for Android was the app everyone waited for, judging by download statistics. Over one million downloads were made in the first 24 hours, which is something only a few (Android) apps have achieved, The Verge claims:
According to the numbers listed on Google’s Play Store, Instagram has already hit a million downloads in its first day of availability, meaning the download was about as popular on opening day as Microsoft’s Consumer Preview for Windows 8.
If you want to see how Instagram looks on several Android phones, The Next Web made a great comparison of Android and iPhone versions of Instagram:
The home screen is nearly identical on both platforms, but there have been some tweaks to the tab bar, including a redesigned camera button and the standard Android ‘active bar’ on the current tab. Note that the tab bar is located on the bottom in both apps, despite the Android UI convention standard being ‘tabs at the top’.
What are you waiting for? Get Instagram for Android and start Insta-snapping photos!
