Web-based alternative to Instagram PicYou launches an iPhone app

Back in August, we told you about PicYou, a web-based alternative to Instagram. Like Instagram, PicYou allows you to apply a variety of filters to their images, add a Polaroid frame, and share them through your social networks.

Up until now, to use PicYou, you had to transfer the photos on to your computer, using the service only through the web interface, which wasn’t entirely convenient. Now PicYou has launched a free iPhone app, which looks an awful lot like Instagram.

The new iPhone app gives users all the essential features available on its website. And like Instagram, PicYou is a social network, which you can now take with you on the go, using your iPhone, sharing unlimited photos with your friends.

If you’re new to PicYou, you can sign up for a free account using Twitter or Facebook or simply sign up use your email address. Using the new iPhone app, you can take photos on the go, and apply one of nine vintage filters.

From the app you can view your feed, featuring your own images and those of the people you follow, user profiles, and you can also view PicYou’s most popular photos.

You can control several settings from the app, including connecting your Facebook and Twitter accounts, and editing your profile details, can viewing activity on your images. Essentially, you can use the service solely from your phone, if you choose to.

While it’s going to take quite a lot to unseat Instagram from it’s number one spot in the filtered photo-sharing space, PicYou does have one advantage over its popular competitor. Instagram does not provide an official web-interface, making it hard to share your images with friends and family who don’t use the service. That said, there are several work arounds – from sharing your Instagram photos directly on Facebook or Twitter, to using a third party website like Extragram or Webstagram. However, some might argue that Instagram’s iPhone-only approach is part of its appeal, giving its members something of an exclusive feel.

Is PicYou’s web interface enough to drag users away from their well established Instagram accounts? It might not be, but rather than depend on a third party service, PicYou provides a dependable web-interface that will not be affected by any changes to the service’s API. Launching an Android app will undoubtedly do far more to cement PicYou as a main competitor to Instagram, particularly as the latter seems more focused on incorporating video sharing into the current app, rather than launching an Android version.

So if you’re still looking for a mobile photo-sharing community to get involved in, PicYou is well worth checking out.

➤ PicYou