Instagram loses live filters and also loses mind
The Next Web reports for Instagram that times are a-changing. There are essentially two kinds of app in Instagram’s ‘add a pretty filter’ space:
- Highly entertaining apps that evoke old-school instant camera charm by live-applying a filter, so you can see what you’re going to get. This is Instagram today.
- Hum-drum apps where you take a photo in a normal, boring way and then spend several days arsing about with countless filters, before more or less choosing one at random, because the alternative is starving to death with a smartphone in your hand, which would be really dumb. This is Instagram tomorrow.
The m0st astonishing aspect of this story comes from Instagram itself, via the known issues site.
As of the current release (v3.1), Instagram does not support live filters on the iPhone 5. Going forward, live filters will be phased out as we work to improve the Instagram experience for all users.
That last sentence is very important and warrants breaking up into chunks:
as we work to improve the Instagram experience
What? How are you improving the Instagram experience by removing something that is core to the Instagram experience?
for all users.
Oh. So Instagram’s boarded the lowest-common denominator train. Next stop: Shitappsville.
UPDATE: Ha! So, on Twitter the response has been split between “Instagram are idiots” and “I never even knew live filters existed”, so perhaps this is also a case of Instagram stamping on a tricky engineering problem related to a feature not used by enough people for them to think it matters. (That said, Android users have responded, grumbling that they’d really like live filters.) Regardless, it’s still a pity to see an app that’s like a ton of point-and-clicks in your pocket get downgraded to one of a billion apply-a-filter-later apps welded to a social network.
What does that mean actually? You can’t preview what you are doing?
@CTD: Yes, no live preview while taking a photo, turning Instagram into a more basic ‘add a filter to an existing snap’ app.
Heh – despite using Instagram for ages, i never realised you could do that. Perhaps because iPhone 4 camera is so slow to set up that I usually take photos with the iOS camera app, and post later on Instagram if any good. Only rarely use Instagram to take the photo.
I knew live filters existed but never used them. They didn’t exist in the first versions of Instagram, so I was accustomed to using the service without them – filtering after snapping the photo. I discovered the live filters when I updated but they never made their way into my “work”flow. So, RIP filters, but, meh.