Instagram-Like Apps: 9 Alternative Camera Apps For iPhone And Android With Hip Photo Filters

After Facebook announced plans to acquire Instagram for a cool $1 billion, many users of the photo-filtering app and social network for iPhone and Android subsequently announced that they would delete Instagram from their phones -- they didn't want the privacy concerns that come with Facebook, for one, and now that Instagram had a corporate overlord it was totally uncool. ("Instagram is over!" you could almost hear them shout, as they whizzed by on their fixed-gear bikes).

If you're leaving Instagram, where do you turn? We've collected nine great photography apps for iPhone and Android here, all of them connected by their ability to add filters to pictures, either during or after the shot. Some of them, like Hipster, Tadaa, EyeEm, and Picplz, come with burgeoning photo-sharing networks built in; others, like Camera Awesome, Pixlr-o-Matic, and Camera+ simply offer powerful, advanced editing suites so that you can augment your photos any way you see fit. We've included photos of the apps in action (WARNING: I got a haircut at some point in between using all of these apps) so that you can better visualize the filter process on each app.

Most of these Instagram alternatives are free, so don't be shy: Give 'em a shot! Check out what these non-one-billion-dollar camera apps have to offer (below), then take a look at some more great photography apps available for free on the iPhone (here).

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Comments

[Mary Diamond]

11:30 AM on 12/19/2012

I loved Picplz and used it exclusively -until Facebook acquired Instagram and they literally announced they were done the same day.

Losing the community wasn't such a let down (although I was totally into MC HAMMER's Picplz photos) but it just sucked to see a great app throw in the towel because Instagram had so much clout. =(

[bkwparadox42]

01:42 PM on 12/18/2012

Instagram sucks, and its users do too. It is destroying the art of photography, making good photos look awful and bad pictures look worse.

If you want to have nostalgic-looking pictures, you're supposed to print them out, put them in a book and wait a few years. Thank goodness this stupid experiment in social media has all the makings of "last year's fad". Now if Facebook would just get in line....

[Beezlebub Boese]

11:45 AM on 12/18/2012

Tadaa. Fantastic editing capability, far beyond the others.

[nmonsarr]

01:23 PM on 04/14/2012

Instagram: The perfect metaphor for America's epidemic of narcissism. Get over yourselves, people!

[Ian Merriss]

11:41 PM on 04/12/2012

Honestly, Camera+ is miles ahead of all the competition. The shutter speed is super fast with great quality photos, the amount of tweaking and editing is endless, and the ability to share photos via twitter, facebook, etc is seamless. Instagram = dead to me

[R1001C]

10:50 PM on 04/12/2012

Ummmm... Lightbox?????

[helrado]

06:01 PM on 04/12/2012

No matter how many mega/giga/terra pixels,smartphone are crap cameras

[Mary Diamond]

11:32 AM on 12/19/2012

My smartphone gets the job done, and I am happy with a lot of the photos I've taken with it. Photography doesn't have to be about the equipment -ever heard of a pinhole camera?

[Awgustlab]

05:35 PM on 04/12/2012

Retro Camera, Magic Hour, Little Photo, Lightbox, FX Camera, and Vignette are all way better options - all free and available for Android phones.

[gemini68]

12:02 PM on 04/12/2012

I already use Pixrl-o-matic. It's okay. But just okay. I still prefer Instagram when it comes to camera apps though. We'll see if that will still be the case six months to a year from now but as now I'm sticking with it,

[weareallzombies]

09:35 AM on 04/12/2012

I love how people complain about free services that they don't even have to use.

[CowboySandtoes]

04:21 AM on 04/12/2012

Toaster is the bomb. why is it not ilsted?

[Robert Elliott Simmons]

03:00 AM on 04/12/2012

No Streamzoo, Flixel, or Cinemagram.

[Dogma]

02:11 AM on 04/12/2012

Here's the thing; Instagram was Instaresting (sic) for about the first week or two. Now it's just annoying.

So please, People, just take a regular photo.

[Lechiffre]

04:45 AM on 04/12/2012

agree , its nothing more than an instant gratification .

[gemini68]

12:03 PM on 04/12/2012

Well that can be said for MOST things on smartphones- including the phone itself.

[Proud Bay Man]

12:27 AM on 04/12/2012

He looks like someone is holding a small terd under his nose.

[Proud Bay Man]

12:26 AM on 04/12/2012

Who's the geek in the pics? lol

[CowboySandtoes]

04:22 AM on 04/12/2012

"how to become a meme without really trying"