Insta-who? Today Facebook begins rolling out Facebook Camera for iOS to English-speaking countries, a standalone photos app
where you can shoot, filter, and share single or sets of photos and
scroll through a feed of photos uploaded to Facebook by your friends.
Developed by Facebook’s photos team without the help of Instagram
because the acquisition deal hasn’t closed yet, Facebook Camera looks a
lot like the app TechCrunch leaked images of a year ago, and is designed for quicker publishing than Facebook’s multi-featured primary mobile app.
Facebook Camera
lets you rapidly pick one or more photos, apply filters, tag friends and
locations, add a description, and post. While its 14 filters, batch
uploads, and streamlined interface are a big step up from Facebook for
iOS, the design isn’t as beautiful as Instagram and neither are the
photos you’ll see in it. When asked if Facebook Camera would become a
direct competitor to the photosharing network it bought last month,
a spokesman told me “As Mark asserted, we’re committed to building and
growing Instagram independently, so I anticipate some healthy
competition.”
