After 18 nights spanned over the last 4 weeks, developer Rudy Huyn has finally concluded his beta for the highly-anticipated Instagram app dubbed 6tagram.
The app has gone through a remarkable 22 beta versions during that time, with multiple updates per day adding many new features during the process. The app was submitted late last night to the Windows Phone Store and should it clear, 6tagram could be live within the next 24 to 72 hours.
6tagram will reportedly be the first 100% API compliant Instagram app for Windows Phone (due to reverse engineering), ensuring that users of the photo service shouldn’t run into any immediate problems, including hashtag shenanigans. The app is loaded with features for a version 1.0 and it should make quite a splash on the scene once it goes live.
6tagram Features version 1.0
- Support for 29 languages
- Account creation
- Find friends on Phone, Facebook, Instagram and Suggestions
- Video support for both playback and uploading (after in-app purchase)
- Live Tile with background agent
- Lens integration
- Social network integration: Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare and VK
- Tagging: location and people
- Semantic zoom – pinch the screen to zoom out and see the photos in a cascade
- Instagram filters including Tilt Shift
- Like, comment, share, download images
- Search
- Full profile editing
- Open 6tagram directly from internet explorer when you browse the Instagram website
There are also lots of other bells and whistles in the app that make it quite compelling.
Based off of Huyn’s earlier work with 6Sec, a Vine client, 6tagram has quickly morphed into a massive project of its own, including the reported involvement of Instagram. While the app won’t be official in any sense, nor endorsed by Instagram, the app also shouldn’t be targeted by the company for a cease and desist. That still doesn’t guarantee that a sudden API change by Instagram won’t break the app, but it should mean that 6tagram's developer won’t be harassed by lawyers either.
The current beta will end on August 22nd and Huyn will begin immediately working on implementing “fast Instagram update mode” to his server before the validation, a 6Sec update and Windows Phone 7.x support. The app will be free, though like 6sec, you can optionally pay to remove ads and use an in-app purchase for video upload support (to cover Huyn’s server costs).
We’ll of course keep you posted when the app will go live as you will hear it here first. In the meantime, you can watch our hands on video with an earlier beta above, showing how the app will work.
