Instagram has increased its portfolio by launching a new photo collage app called Layout. Layout is an app for creating photo collages to be shared on social media platforms and its features directly complement the photo-sharing platform of its parent company, Instagram.
How it works
Layout allows you select up to 9 photos at a time from your smartphone’s gallery and provides you with template collages for arranging the selected photos. You can also take series of shots in real-time and use them to create photo collages by arranging, re-sizing, and swapping the images.
Social network support
Collages from Layout can be uploaded directly to multiple social media platforms including Facebook, Snapchat, Google+ and Instagram. Users can also save these collages in Dropbox and Google Photos for future use. Instagram actively prevents its images from showing up on Twitter, and the same is still true for Layout collages as well.
OS support
For now, Layout is available only for iOS but a version for Android devices is definitely in the works and will be released by Instagram sometime this year. This means only iPhone and iPad users can currently take advantage of the collage and image mixing features the app has to offer.
Is there a market for Layout?
Apps like Picmix, Pic Collage and Pic Frame have already carved out a niche for this type of tool. With the support of Instagram Layout should have no problem gathering a user base for itself. Instagram offers fairly limited photo mixing features so Instagram users will appreciate Layout’s broader and more creative options.
Only time will tell if Layout remains a stand-alone app or if it will eventually be integrated directly into the Instagram app. Are you an Instagram user (If so you should follow TechSpective on Instagram)? Do you use a stand-alone photo collage app like those listed above? What do you think of Layout? If you’ve tried out the new Instagram app let us know what you think of it in the comments below.
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