If you recently upgraded to the new iPhone 6 or if you downloaded the new iOS 8, you may be asking yourself what new options and features does this bring to Instagram.
This post will outline all the new features for Instagram iOS 8 and what you can expect from the new and improved camera in the iPhone 6. There are a slew of new and old tips and tricks that will get you sharing photos, taking photos, and viewing your friends photos better and more efficiently. I’ll walk you through the newest ones below. Keep in mind that the update is pretty recent so there may be some changes as Instagram updates their app.
First, let’s get into a bit more detail about Instagram in case you’re unfamiliar with the app and are just downloading it for the first time.
What is Instagram?
Instagram is a photo sharing app based on simplicity and photo filters. A user uploads a photo with a caption and has the option to apply one of a dozen plus filters to the photo to create an antique, retro, saturated, black and white, etc. effect. Another key characteristic is that all photos are square cropped with the exact same dimensions.
The simplicity and control which Instagram placed on their photo sharing social platform is one of the main reason for it’s success. It eliminates clutter and gets straight to the thing a user wants to see. Much like Twitter does with it’s short text sharing.
In the last six months, Instagram has passed 200 million users, with the help of the parent company, Facebook. Instagram was acquired by Facebook in 2012 and has since seen double digit growth while the parent company has seen much slower growth.
New Instagram iOS 8 Features
The iOS 8 release date was September 17th, 2014 which opened up the new download to all iPhone and iPad users who wanted to upgrade to the new mobile operating system. On the same day, the Instagram 6.1.0 version was released with the comment “Updated for iOS 8” as the only description of the update. Since then there has been one 6.1.1 release that claims to fix bugs and improve performance.
Frustrating as it may be that Instagram didn’t post what new features came with the new iOS 8 we can infer different features based on the new phone and iOS 8. As a whole, the look and feel of the app is the same as before with no changes to the layout, the process of taking a photo, or interacting with your friends or family.
iOS 8 Photo Editing Features
The new iOS 8 includes a host of photo editing features that will allow you to compliment Instagram when taking photos, editing and creating the final version to share. Below is a list of the new photo editing tools. Remember, you have to take the photo outside of the Instagram edit it using these features, then you can load it into the app to share.
- The new iOS 8 will automatically straighten a photos horizon after taking it and can help you get the perfect crop. However, this may interfere with the required square crop for Instagram.
- You can manually adjust the lighting on your photo by using the lighting tool.
- Real time adjust the exposure, brightness, contrast, highlights, shadows, black point, color and saturation to make the photos more vivid and pop out.
- Lastly, you can add built in iOS 8 filters to your photos if you don’t like the Instagram filters.
All of these new editing features allow you to have a ton more flexibility when you’re taking a picture and want to upload it to Instagram.
Another cool option is that you can now take time lapse videos with iOS 8. This trick lets you take photos at specifically timed intervals to capture a sunset, crashing of waves, a flower opening up, etc. This is a good option to upload as a video to Instagram to introduce a bit of creativity and unique originality to your profile and account.
Instagram Hyperlapse
One of the newest features of Instagram is the add on app called Hyperlapse. This is a stand alone app developed by Instagram to let you take time lapse videos in high speed. The app features built in stabilization so that your videos won’t look rocky even if you’re walking or not holding your hand still.
All you have to do is open the app to take the time lapse video. When you’re done take the video you can choose to play it back at 1 times to 12 times the original speed. This can add a lot of fun to a photo if you’re driving or doing a fast paced activity. Then just save the video to your camera roll and you can upload it to Instagram to share with your friends. Pretty easy and the results look great.
Tip: Linking Instagram to Twitter in iOS 8
A lot of people have been having trouble linking their Instagram account to Twitter after updating to the new iOS 8 operating system. If you’re having trouble you can follow these steps:
- First, go to the settings icon on your iPhone after updating to iOS 8.
- Scroll down and find Twitter and tap on it.
- Tap the Delete Account button to unlink the account.
- Next, you will want to head over to the Instagram app.
- Navigate to your personal profile then tap on the settings icon.
- Then share settings and then Twitter.
- Type in your Twitter username and password to relink your accounts and press done.
This basically unlinks your two accounts and then links them back again. That way it will register the new synced accounts if for some reason the update caused an issue.
Tip: Instagram Push Notifications In iOS 8
Another common problem is that people are finding they’re not receiving push notifications when they get the new iOS 8 system installed. An easy way to fix this is try to log out of your account and login again or sign up if you don’t have an account already. Make sure you check the App store to see if you have the latest Instagram 6.1.1 software on your device.
Instagram iPhone 6 Features
There are a host of new features on the iPhone 6 and the main ones that pertain to Instagram are those of the camera. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus have vast improvements in their cameras, including options typically seen in DSLR cameras. Your photos are sure to come out better than ever with this new model. But first, what about the bigger screen.
Instagram On The Larger iPhone 6
One of the key differences of the iPhone 6 compared to the iPhone 5 or iPhone 5S is that the screen is larger. In both the 6 and 6 plus you have more real estate for Instagram to show larger photos or more content. Apple has said they will scale old apps to the larger iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus.
However, there are some problems with just a bulk scale. The primarily problem is that everything will just be bulk shifted to be larger. However, as an app developer you may not want everything to be larger but just try to fit more content into the larger screen that you now have to work with.
It is likely that the updated iOS 8 Instagram app has taken advantage of this larger screen by using the entire real estate for images and text.
iPhone 6 Camera = Better Instagram Photos
The new camera in iPhone 6 has a host of new features. Here are a some of the best and most notable new features that will help you take better Instagram photos and tips to get a shot in even the lowest light.
The only difference between the cameras in the smaller and bigger iPhone sizes is that the larger iPhone 6 Plus has optical image stabilization. This is an incredible feature that includes a built in gyroscope that compensates for your movement while taking a photo to make the image clearer and with less motion blur.
The new camera will let you take slow mo videos along with time lapse videos that will enable your creative juices to flow when coming up with your next best Instagram video to post.
Two great features of the front facing camera is that it lets in 81% more light so you can take photos in low light settings. Also, it includes a burst mode where you can take a bunch of photos simultaneously so that you can capture the moment quicker and not miss a thing.
Here is a feature list of the new iPhone 6 Camera:
- There is a new 8-megapixel iSight camera that includes 1.5µ pixels
- Autofocus with Focus Pixels
- ƒ/2.2 aperture
- Optical image stabilization (iPhone 6 Plus only)
- Five-element lens
- Hybrid IR filter
- Sapphire crystal lens cover
- Auto image stabilization
- Auto HDR for photos
- Improved face detection
- Exposure control
- Panorama (up to 43 megapixels)
- Burst mode
- Tap to focus
- Photo geotagging
- Timer mode
That wraps up the new iPhone 6 features and how they enhance your experience with the Instagram app and taking photos. As you can tell, a better camera means better Instagram photos and more likes and followers. There is a lot of data that suggests the better a photo you take on Instagram the more people will follow and like it. Thankfully, Apple helps with this tremendously with their new built in front and rear facing cameras.
Instagram Tips of 2015
There are several brand new tricks that will help you master Instagram and keep on getting better and better at taking photos and expanding your Instagram user base. No matter your experience or comfort level using the app you will be able to have a better time using it once you’ve gotten these techniques down. On top of that, I’ll provide some convenient ways to respond to Instagram tags on the fly and to help advertise your cause to your followers.
- You can promote your website using a simple trick. Usually when you’re using Instagram you may notice that you cannot put a url or website address in a description of a photo and have it be a link. This is primarily because Instagram wants to keep their social media site a bit less business oriented, but sometimes there’s a good cause to get out to the public. To include a website on your Instagram post all you have to do is go to add a location tag to your photo and from there you can type in the full url of your website and hit enter. Now, you’ll see that it’s a link!
- Another great trick is if you want to post a clickable link you can head over to your profile and add a link to whatever you want to share on there. Then go and post an image to Instagram and in the description you can point out that people should visit your bio to get the link to the full information. That way you can get around the sharing limitations of Instagram.
- Want to do a cool trick with formatting your bio? All you have to do is create and format it in Microsoft Word and then copy and paste it into your Instagram bio. It will keep all of the formatting, emojis, symbols, and emoticons that you may want and you won’t have to worry about all the formatting issues associated with creating a bio straight in Instagram
- Did you make a glaring mistake when posting an image to Instagram? Did you misspell something or type in the wrong hashtag? If so, you don’t have to live with the mistake. All you have to do is look for the “…” also known as the ellipsis and tap on it to edit the description. This will allow you to edit your wording and any hashtags that you included initially.
Know of any other tips or tricks that will help our users navigate Instagram iOS 8 features or maximize the new camera in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus? As the phone and operating system become a little older we will surely see more and more information and tips on how to use them. We will try to stay on top of any Instagram updates that may change the way you use the app in iOS 8. If you’ve forgotten your Instagram login information, look here. Until then, happy photo sharing and leave a comment below!