While there’s still no sign of an official Instagram app for those poor souls stuck on the slick yet decidedly bereft Windows Phone 8 platform, a new app by the name of Hipstamatic Oggl is surely the next best thing. The app, which made its name on Apple’s iPhone, allows users to take and edit snaps with ease, but the key component in the case of Windows Phone is its ability to post directly to Instagram.
Thus far, the closest a WP8 user has gotten to posting to the popular image sharing app on their smartphone is by means of apps like Instagraph, which uses a middleman server in order to spoof Instagram into thinking you’re posting from an authorized device. But, Itsdagram (now called Instance) is a much more better offering in a lot of ways compared to Instagraph. This is not ideal, since it kinda takes the ‘Insta’ effect away with delays while the process works its magic, but Hipstamatic Oggl finally delivers something of a legit Instagram experience to Microsoft’s troubled platform.
The iPhone version has been around for quite a while, offering instant sharing features with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram alongside Hipstamatic’s own little network. The Windows Phone version is much the same, offering a distinctly WP interface but with the vast majority of the great features iOS owners have been enjoying for a while.
There’s a standard version catering to Windows Phone 8 handsets not just the Lumia, and a special PRO version suited to the brand-new Nokia Lumia 1020. With its 41-megapixel camera and a plethora of great stock features for snap happy point-and-shooters, never has the Finnish company’s emphasis on superior photography been more apparent, and I guess since the Lumia 1020 is so clearly marked as a cut above the rest of the field, we should expect most subsequent photo-centric apps to offer exclusive features to this brand new device.
If you do happen to be a Lumia 1020, you can take advantage of additional niceties like manual control of exposure, white balance, ISO, shutter speed and much more.
The standard offering packs in many of Hipstamatic’s great features, and both the basic and PRO versions arrive with 5 preset lenses and films. If you sign up for a Hipstamatic Oggl account by August 9th, you’ll also get a 60 day trial of Hipstamatic’s wide library of filters and effects. Not bad at all.
Check it out, and be sure to leave your thoughts and comments below.
(Download: Hipstamatic Oggl Basic / PRO on Windows Phone Store)
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