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It's super fast to take pictures. You don't have to use a filter, but if you do, you can make an average or below-average picture look halfway decent (or even a

It's super fast to take pictures. You don't have to use a filter, but if you do, you can make an average or below-average picture look halfway decent (or even amazing). There's very little friction to get started and it's easy to follow and interact with people. Easier said than done to get such a great experience on mobile. It's photos and social done right, in my opinion. Anectdotally, it got someone like me who never took pictures before to really enjoy the creativity and process of sharing photos with friends and have memories of things I've seen in New York.

Aardwolf 13y ago
Are these filters better than what Photoshop/Gimp/... can do?
- samstokes 13y ago
  They're probably better than what Photoshop/Gimp can do on your smartphone. Producing professional-quality portfolio pieces isn't the main use case here :) (Speaking as someone who also doesn't quite "get" Instagram.)
- jonathanjaeger 13y ago
  No, but it's easy to use on-the-go with your mobile phone. However, there are definitely people on Instagram who care more about the look of the photos and do more professional touchups to their photos. They probably aren't there for the ease of use but for the community aspect -- posting more professional pictures for a large following.
- andreigheorghe 13y ago
  Of course not, but you can't compare a desktop application like Photoshop to a mobile app because the use cases are completely different. With Instagram you can take the picture, select the filter, upload the photo and share to Facebook, all within 10 seconds, at the beach. During that time, Photoshop is still loading fonts and initializing action palette, on your computer at home :).
  - Kluny 13y ago
    Not to mention, loads of people don't have Photoshop, have never heard of Gimp, and are scared to even try to get started learning either of them.
- antihero 13y ago
  They are better than what most people can do with Photoshop/Gimp. People have tried to recreate them with actions but they haven't quite got there.

Aardwolf 13y ago

Are these filters better than what Photoshop/Gimp/... can do?

samstokes 13y ago
They're probably better than what Photoshop/Gimp can do on your smartphone. Producing professional-quality portfolio pieces isn't the main use case here :) (Speaking as someone who also doesn't quite "get" Instagram.)
jonathanjaeger 13y ago
No, but it's easy to use on-the-go with your mobile phone. However, there are definitely people on Instagram who care more about the look of the photos and do more professional touchups to their photos. They probably aren't there for the ease of use but for the community aspect -- posting more professional pictures for a large following.
andreigheorghe 13y ago
Of course not, but you can't compare a desktop application like Photoshop to a mobile app because the use cases are completely different. With Instagram you can take the picture, select the filter, upload the photo and share to Facebook, all within 10 seconds, at the beach. During that time, Photoshop is still loading fonts and initializing action palette, on your computer at home :).
- Kluny 13y ago
  Not to mention, loads of people don't have Photoshop, have never heard of Gimp, and are scared to even try to get started learning either of them.
antihero 13y ago
They are better than what most people can do with Photoshop/Gimp. People have tried to recreate them with actions but they haven't quite got there.