Still Looking For An Instagram Alternative? Try Via.Me

Thinking about hitting the uninstall button on your phone's Instagram app since learning about Facebook's acquisition of the company? You aren't alone. While the news may have vaulted Instagram to the top of the App Store charts, some customers have expressed unease about the deal and are looking for alternatives. One company looking to turn Instagram's possible lemons into its own lemonade is Via.Me, a newly launched app that describes itself as part Instagram, part Tumblr and part Pinterest. "We’re trying to bring all the good things of all the good social apps out there into one space," said Rupert Staines, UK-based managing director of RadiumOne, the company that rolled out Via.Me. Via.Me, which launched at the start of March, does more than just filter photos. It refers to itself as a "social publishing platform" allowing users to upload pictures, video, and audio and share it on a variety of different social networks, like Twitter or Facebook. The free app is currently only available for iPhones but an Android app is in the works, Staines said. After the Facebook-Instagram deal became public last Monday, Staines said interest in Via.Me increased immediately. Before Instagram's acquisition, Via.Me had about 2.5 million unique users of the desktop version of the app. By Tuesday, the day after the news broke, the number had jumped to 3 million, Staines said. The site is taking advantage of its increased popularity. Its homepage now reads, "Welcome Instagram users" and includes a link where new users can import their Instagram photos. The Via.Me blog has not one but two posts welcoming Instagram users and the site has created a simple 1-2-3 step process for Instagram users to import their photos. "There's clearly a bit of a drift of unhappy users from Instagram trying to find alternatives to go to," Staines said. "We're tying to make it as easy as possible for people to come to Via.me." Since launch, Via.Me has been downloaded more than 500,000 times, according to Staines, but numbers on how many more people downloaded the app since the Facebook-Instagram news was unavailable. Introducing Via.Me from RadiumOne on Vimeo. Are you looking for an Instagram alternative? What similar apps have you tried out and enjoyed? Let us know in the comments section below or on Twitter.

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Still Looking For An Instagram Alternative? Try Via.Me

Elana Zak

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