INSTAGRAM: You can now view your photo feed from the web

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The Instagram team has slowly been adding more and more web functionality to its super popular photo app and today users are able to browse their feed directly from the internet at instagram.com.

In a blog post announcing the changes, Instagram’s Co-Founder, Kevin Systrom, explains that a mobile-only experience has, up until now, worked very well because we all take photos on the move. However, the decision to venture onto the web has been all about making Instagram more accessible to its diverse and growing community. Because after all, it may not be acceptable to sit at your desk mesmerised by retro images of cats on your phone while you’re at work (but it’s totally acceptable on your computer, obviously):

“We believe that you should be able to access Instagram on a variety of different devices, any of which may be convenient to you at a given moment – including your desktop computer or tablet. We do not offer the ability to upload from the web as Instagram is about producing photos on the go, in the real world, in realtime. On the other hand, Instagram for the web is focused on making the browsing experience a fast, simple and enjoyable one.”

Kevin Systrom reveals that the team has been wanting to build the web version for “quite some time now”, but that doesn’t mean it’s any different to the app. In fact the new web feed works in much the same way as Instagram does on your mobile, you can browse photos, like them, write comments underneath them and click on web profiles to stalk people even more. However, you can’t upload photos and you can’t add filters, but that makes sense because Instagram is still focused on taking and sharing photos on the go, this is just about a more passive, accessible viewing experience. It’s great the simple mobile user experience has been translated to the web, which we predict will certainly make people who are obsessed with the app much more inclined to seamlessly browse between the two.

We’re not sure what this latest development will mean for third party apps, some still offer unique ways of viewing your photos, but many people might now swap independent viewing services for Instagram’s super simple offering. That’s unless the app plans on adding lots of advertising to its web properties, as a number of tech blogs today have pointed out there’s a LOT of white space sat there on the sides of the news feed, which is a little ominous.

Check out instagram.com to see your shiny, new web feed.

[Via Instagram Blog Image via Emkwan’s Instagram]

Becca Caddy

One thought on “INSTAGRAM: You can now view your photo feed from the web

  • As a user, I think it's great that you can't upload photos or add filters on the web. It's great that this feature remains about taking and sharing photos on the go.

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