Instagram doesn’t do a lot (Instagram Direct doesn’t work well in my experience). It is a simple tool for sharing images with your friends and more importantly, the entire world. And if your feud over Instagram is with people who can’t stop sharing pictures of their lunch, you should consider following other people. But, today I’m here to tell you how you can make your Instagram experience better. This is not a list of Instagram do’s and don’t (because the internet really doesn’t need another one of those). This is just a list of tools that help you share the things you do already, only a lot better. What’s better than sharing a screenshot of the weather app to show how hot it is? A picture of the hot sky with the temperature already added in. The same goes for sharing where you are. Read on to know more.
1. Overgram
Overgram (iPhone) is the spiritual cousin of Over, the app that allows you to manipulate text over any image. Only, this app is optimized for Instagram i.e. square images. All the interaction takes place with the wheel that slides out. Move the wheel to change options. Select your photo, add some text and then choose your fonts. The app has a large selection of fonts ranging from classy to loud. But many of them are locked behind an upgrade. When you are satisfied with the photo you can either save it to your camera roll or share it on Instagram.
2. InstaPlace
InstaPlace (iPhone, Android) scans for geo location from the photo’s EXIF data and embeds it in the image itself. So, along with the image, you can share where you took it as well. As the app uses the embedded EXIF data in the image, you can do this for any photo in your gallery, no matter when you took it or using which app. You can use VSCO Cam to click the image and then InstaPlace to share it with the location.
3. InstaWeather
InstaWeather (iPhone, Android) is very much like InstaPlace – it looks similar and is made by the same developers. It works in the same way as well. Click a new photo or import one from your camera roll, the current weather for your location will be superimposed on your picture. You can add a comment about the weather or change the theme. The free themes look nice but the premium themes look gorgeous. Pick your text, and send it over to Instagram. Note: With InstaPlace and InstaWeather, you can share your squared image to any app like Facebook, Twitter or even save the image to your camera roll. The apps don’t limit your use to only Instagram.
4. InstaQuote
InstaQuote (iPhone, Android) lets you share any quote or text on top of a standard or a custom image. Choose your font, and type in the text, you can even credit the author of the quote. The app starts you off with a couple of themes for free but if you want more, you’ll have to pay for an upgrade. The best thing about InstaQuote is that it allows you to set any photo from your albums as the background. This provides for interesting sharing opportunities. Using this app you can take your latest photo and add beautiful text right over it. What better way to make your caption stand out than putting it right on top of the image.
5. Fuzel
Fuzel(iPhone) is an incredibly feature-rich app that allows you to create collages on the fly. Just select a couple of photos from your storage, decide on the template, even add some text if you want and send it over to Instagram. Fuzel has recently added support for animated collages where your photos are turned into a short video with cool transitions. You can share these on social networking sites as well. The process is simple but you are spoiled by choice. Between multiple photos that can be shared in a collage and more than a hundred templates, there really is a lot to think about. Thankfully, Fuzel makes the navigation dead simple. It will take some practice but soon you’ll be going head to head with The Verge when it comes to photo collages on Instagram.
