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Instagram may close down as Facebook launches Instagram killer

Could this be a sign that we are nearing the end of our beloved Instagram? Today Facebook launched their own Instagram-esque mobile photo sharing app, with photo filters and social tied directly into Facebook. The conundrum is that Facebook just acquired Instagram last month for $1 billion. What gives?

Well for starters, Facebook is a photo-centric social network, so they are simply trying accentuate photos on the platform going forward using mobile, since mobile is the future. Additionally, this keeps users integrated into a native Facebook app, vs. using another app client to feed into Facebook and keeps you locked into Facebook. Also, since a lot of Facebook users don’t use Instagram, the reach is less with only using Instagram, and the reach is greater by opening up a photo app directly towards existing Facebook users, which is nearing one billion globally.

But with all that said, why would Facebook basically create another app identical to Instagram, especially since they paid an enormous amount of money to acquire them? The points I made above are valid, but with Instagram integrating it deeply into Facebook is all that is really needed, and it seems unnecessary to create direct competition with it unless the long term goal is to sunset Instagram and migrate all users over to Facebook.

From my initial use of the new Facebook Camera app, it’s not even close to the quality that comes with Instagram. To be frank, the filters suck and the UX isn’t even on par with Instagram. Facebook Camera does have it’s advantages though, with batch photo uploads being the main one. And to add some insult to injury, the Facebook app is placing high on the creepy level.

In using the app, the only way to access your Camera Roll on iOS is to allow Facebook full access to your location. You have to, or you cannot use your Camera Roll at all. The reason behind this is so that Facebook can further tie it’s platform into location based functions, such as targeted advertising. Sneaky.