Instagram introduces new Facebook-like web profiles for snap happy users

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Not content with taking over our mobile lives one rubbish, retro snapshot at a time, super popular photo app Instagram won’t just occupy a special place in our phones for much longer, as it’s bolstering its web presence and launching shiny new profiles online for its users.

Earlier in the year Instagram allowed users to share single photos via the web, which sparked rumours that it wouldn’t be too long until the team unveiled online profiles crammed full of dreamy snaps to go with them. Well it seems the wait is over and two years after the app first launched a post on the official Instagram blog yesterday revealed that web profiles would be gradually rolled out to users over the next week.

As you’d expect, the web profiles feature all of your recent Instagram photos, your username, profile photo and bio. But it’s not just about displaying your beautiful creations (LOLZ), the new souped up Instagram web presence means you can now follow users, comment, like and edit your profile all from the same dashboard.

As you can see from the screenshot above there’s a huge focus on all of your images and it all looks a bit eerily like a Facebook timeline, but that’s hardly surprising given the social network’s acquisition of Instagram. We’re not sure whether this could point to further integration between the two entities in future, but the web profiles could certainly be the first step to a more joined up approach or on the other hand they may just be a way of further differentiating between the two, only time will tell.

To see your fancy new web profile then visit instagram.com/[yourusername], but don’t worry if you’re just served up a lame holding page, none of Shiny HQ’s have made the leap online quite yet…

Let us know in the comments below whether you’re happy Instagram has ventured into the big, wide world of the web or would have preferred your favourite photo app to stay just that, an app.

[Via Instagram Image via @mycookingdiary]

Becca Caddy