Instagram is finally available for Android and its been downloaded by over 6 million people already, making the total number of Instragram users nearly 30 million.
Sadly, not all Android devices can access Instagram, like the HTC Wildfire. This annoys a lot of people.
So, here I’ve put together a list of six alternatives to Instagram that are all free.
Check them out…
RetroCamera
My personal favourite. It lets you take excellent old school shots using five different camera styles based upon the images you get from the Lomo, Holga, Polaroid and Diana cameras and the Hipstamatic toy cameras of yesteryear.
The six camera settings (examples below) offer six different sets of vintage formatting with vignetting, heavy saturation and contrast, colour casts, film scratches, cross processing and frames to give you that instant nostalgic look.
The six camera settings include:
- The Bärbl – provides faded shots with a neutral colour cast with medium vignetting, minimal scratches and a dirty old stock photo style frame.
- The Little Orange Box – provides high levels of cross processing with a purpley-red colour cast and a scratched square film look with some vignetting and a scratched and faded looking frame.
- The Xolaroid 2000 – provides shots with a bluey-green cross processing, heavy contrast and high saturation levels, minor scratches and, of course, the instant polaroid-style frame.
- The Pinhole Camera – provides shots with a kind of full-bleed developing look, with medium-high contrast and low saturation levels and heavy vignetting with an old school film negative-style frame.
- The FudgeCan – provides shots with a dark green tint, heavy vignetting, blurry spots but minimal scratches and an overall bad processing look. No frame, just square cut shots.
- The Hipsteroku – provides shots with a medium-high contrast level and intense colour leeks on a old school white stock frame.
The screen layout – as seen in the screengrab below – is good and each camera has it’s own screen style based upon the classic cameras. Pressing the shutter button can be a pain, particularly if you’re taking self-shots, but I think you can change it to a hardware button to make it easier, I think. The viewfinder screen is pretty small but you get used to it.
Overall, it’s an easy to use App and produces some excellent results. The layout of the screen is pretty, but you need a large screen phone to get the best out of it. For free, it is an excellent App and one I would highly recommend.
Retro Camera is available on your Android phone here.
Pixlr-o-matic
Pixlr-o-matic doesn’t offer the social aspects of Instagram but they have tons more filters, not to mention awesome borders, tweaks, glare, glitter and more.
You can get it from the Google Play Store by clicking here, and it’s completely free. Many consider this the best photography app for Android and iOS period, so it’s definitely worth checking out.
Flickr
If you’re a Flickr fan, like me, then the Flickr App is awesome and a must have. It has everything you know and love about Flickr, including its huge community, and it adds filters, boarders and all the sharing to Facebook options that Instagram has too.
Get it from the Play Store right now.
StreamZoo
Streamzoo has all the filters and borders you want, plus the social aspects and even makes taking and sharing photos into a little game where you have to collect badges and more.
Streamzoo has 14 filters, as opposed to Instagram’s 17 but they also have 15 borders and tons of other options.
Get it right here.
Hipster
Last but definetaly not least is Hipster. Hipster borrows a lot from Instagram but it also offers a few things to differentiate it, such as postcards and geo-tagging.
The user interface is very straightforward and opens up instantly to something familiar. It is one of the quickest and easiest of the 5 mentioned above.
Get Hipster right here!
So, there you go, five alternatives to Instagram.
