Instagram sharing has finally arrived on Windows Phone, but it’s not in the form you’d expect.
Hipstamatic, the once-king of iPhone photo apps, has transitioned its business model to what you’d expect if 500px decided to severely dilute its focus while maintaining its photographer-centric approach. Hipstamatic Oggl (pronounced, I’m assuming, “ogle”) is a social network that, like Instagram, allows you to post photos with filters and follow others who do the same.
The main difference is that, unlike Instagram, you have the choice of lenses and films, which can be combined to create new and potentially interesting effects. You get five of each — lenses and films — but for $2.99 per quarter or $9.99 per year you gain access to all the “gear.”
Possibly the most important feature of the app is sanctioned posting to Instagram, though the activity only goes in one direction: you cannot view your Instagram feed (there are unofficial apps like Instance or Instagraph for that) but posting is possible, along with Twitter and Facebook.
Nokia and Hipstamatic went into the project together, which is likely the reason Oggl is available for Windows Phone before it comes to Android. There is a PRO version of the app specifically for the Lumia 1020, giving users of the 41MP shooter greater control over settings like exposure, white balance, ISO and shutter speed.
Using Oggl is not intuitive. Not only is the sign-up process confusing, but the app crashed on me several times before sputtering to normalcy. The camera forces you to re-focus, even if you’ve already done so manually, potentially ruining the frame or the moment in the process.
Then there’s the issue of finding people to follow. Unlike Instagram, or basically any social network where you benefit from the content of others, there is no discovery mechanism in Oggl. You must manually search for people via username. In what universe would this be considered a solution?
So, Oggl has some areas to work on, but it’s also the only legitimate (read: non-hack) way to post to Instagram.
Download Hipstamatic Oggl for Windows Phone.
Via: Nokia Conversations
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