Photo-sharing service Picplz to shut down on 3 July

Picplz, one of the most prominent rivals to Instagram at one time, is to close down on 3 July, a notice on its blog has announced.

The service, which initially had a key advantage over Instagram in being available on Android as well as iOS, has seemingly lost traction in recent months. “It has been a pleasure bringing picplz to our users, but we have decided to move on to other projects and have made the tough decision to shut it down,” the blog post says.

Before it shuts down entirely, users have the next month to download all the images stored on the service. This could be a hassle if you have a lot of pictures on there though – each one has to be individually saved by clicking the ‘download’ link next to it.

Developed by Mixed Media Labs, Picplz was spun off as a separate company in July last year when the company decided to move on to other projects. Following Instagram’s launch on Android, and its acquisition by Facebook, Picplz’s role as a rival seemed increasingly unnecessary with potentially not much in the way of a lucrative exit on the horizon, so there’s little surprise that it’s now heading to that sepia filter in the sky.