Instagram for PC - Is There an Option?

Instagram is one of the hottest photo-taking apps we use today, and an Instagram for PC option would be great for those who haven’t quite jumped on the mobile bandwagon just yet.

Unfortunately, an Instagram for PC option hasn’t been developed just yet. You can however visit Instagr.am and sign in to your account, but you can only edit your personal profile details such as your name, email address, username, phone number, gender, birthday, biography information and website. But at this point, you can’t take photos or upload photos and apply filters with a PC.

Platforms Instagram Currently Supports

If you don’t own a smartphone or a tablet computer, you can’t really use Instagram. Instagram currently only supports both iOS and Android devices.

Instagram for iOS: Works on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. It’s free to download from the App Store. Check out our iOS review of Instagram here.

Instagram for Android: After much anticipation, Instagram for Android was finally released in April of 2012. Depending on how old your Android device is and whether or not you have the latest OS version, you may or may not experience bugs or crashes while using it. You can download the app for free from Google Play. Feel free to also check out our Android review of Instagram here.

How to Share Instagram Online via Web

So there’s no Instagram for PC app right now, and you probably shouldn’t expect to see one come out any time soon. Even if the developers do have anything else in the works, it probably has more to do with supporting other mobile devices (BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7, etc.) or deeper Facebook integration (considering they were recently acquired by Facebook).

But if you have an iOS or Android device with the Instagram app installed on it, you can still send your photos from your device to the web. Instagram gives you a unique URL to your photo, which is hosted on their website. Here’s how to do it:

Edit your share settings: The only way to get thE link for your Instagram photo is to share it somewhere first. Choose the profile/settings tab, which should be the last one on the lower menu, and then hit “Edit share settings.” One of the easiest ways to get your link is to share it on Twitter, but you can get it from almost anywhere you decide to share it.

Take your photo and apply a filter: The first thing to do, obviously, is get your photo looking the way you want it to look. Once that’s all done, click Next or OK.

Share the photo: Before your photo is posted to Instagram, you can add a caption, geotagging, and of course there’s the option to share it by checking off each social network where you want to post it.

Grab the URL: Go online to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or wherever and you should find the Instagram link to your photo in the textual caption. If you shared it on Tumblr, simply click the actual photo to get the link.

Even if you already posted your photo to Instagram, you can still share it online. Just click the three little dots at the bottom of your photo to share it. And that’s about as close as you can get to an Instagram for PC option right now, folks!

Instagram for PC Alternatives

So, there’s no way to post photos to Instagram directly from your PC, but there are a few alternatives you can use if you want to get a similar vintage filter look.

Pixlr: This is actually a vintage or retro photo editor that can be downloaded and installed directly in your browser, on Facebook, or even as a Chrome web app. It’s a great option if you want to create vintage-looking photos from your PC.

Poladroid.net: Download this web app and create high resolution Polaroid photos with retro effects and filters. It’s as easy and dragging and dropping your photos to the app. You can download the Windows version or Mac version and create them right from your computer.

Photoscape: This is a great app you can directly download to do all kinds of effects with your photos, right from your PC (or Mac). It actually serves as a great replacement for Photoshop.

Pixlr, Poladroid.net and Photoscape apps can all be downloaded for free.