It took long enough, but it's finally happened: Instagram is now on Windows Phone. The breakout photo (and now video) sharing app that established itself on iPhone before spreading to Android in 2012 is now on the third-place platform in mobile. Waze, the social-powered traffic app owned by Google, has arrived, too.
Windows Phone owners should be able to find Instagram in the Windows Phone Store on their phones as of 11 a.m. PT Wednesday. It works just like it does on other platforms (see screenshots in the gallery below), with a notable exception: On Windows Phone 8, Instagram becomes one of the camera's "lenses" — apps the user can call up straight from the camera UI. The phone's camera roll remembers which apps took which pics, too, letting you open and re-edit them at any time.
See also: 12 Most Cliché Photos on Instagram
"[Instagram] is something our users have definitely been super interested in getting on the phone," Todd Brix, general manager of the Windows App Store, told Mashable, "primarily because a lot of the proposition for consumers on our [platform] is the great built-in camera experience. Having the number one social-networking-plus-photo application on the platform is a great thing."
As Brix says, Instagram — one of the world's most popular social photo apps — coming to Windows Phone represents a huge milestone for the platform. Microsoft's mobile OS has struggled to gain traction against the giants of iOS and Android, which dominate most markets.
As a smaller platform, though, Windows Phone has more room to grow, and grow it has: It's the number two platform after Android in some areas, such as Latin America. Momentum probably wasn't the only thing that interested Instagram, of course; the service is owned by Facebook, a strategic partner of Microsoft.
The presence of Instagram will certainly please many Windows Phone users since Nokia, Microsoft's main hardware partner (and soon-to-be subsidiary), has prioritized camera technology as a differentiator. Photography apps account for 8% of app downloads on Windows Phone, according to Microsoft, vs. 6% on iPhone. Overall app downloads have increased 290% since the launch of Windows Phone 8 in November 2012 , Microsoft says.
"We've seen in the last couple of years that the devices come out, people write the reviews, and somewhere in there it says, 'It's pretty good, but the ecosystem is lagging,'" says Casey McGee, Microsoft's senior marketing manager for Windows Phone. "We've been looking at that, listening to feedback, and what we're seeing is we have turned that corner. People are more satisfied with some of the key apps on our platform than on other platforms."
Waze arriving on Windows Phone is notable for a different reason. Waze had been planning a Windows Phone app for some time, but Google's purchase of the free turn-by-turn navigation services for $1.03 billion made the app's fate uncertain. Google all but ignores Microsoft's Windows Phone, claiming the platform doesn't have enough users to justify creating native apps, although there's no shortage of animosity between the two companies.
Now it's clear the project wasn't cancelled, and Windows Phone users can enjoy native apps for both Waze and Instagram. Other flagship apps, such as Path and Flipboard, have also announced plans for Windows Phone apps, although launch dates have not yet been announced.
The feed looks similar to the Instagram experience on other platforms, with Windows Phone iconography.
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Image: Mashable composite