Hipstamatic treads into social networking terrain with Oggl
The popular photo and filter app is rolling out a spin-off app that lets users share their creations with a "community for creative people."
Even though Hipstamatic and Instagram are photo-sharing partners, it seems like Hipstamatic is looking to add a little more social networking to its world.
The company announced Wednesday that it's launching a Hipstamatic spin-off app called Oggl for iOS. The idea is for people to take Hipstamatic-like photos and then share them with friends and family.
According to a Hipstamatic blog post by co-founders Lucas Buick and Ryan Dorshorst, Oggl is "a community for creative people to capture and curate their lives through photography." The company is clear that it doesn't want Oggl to be full of photos of people making kissy faces, bottles of beer they're drinking, or blurry and boring images of friends.
"Oggl isn't a fuzzy snap of cooking solo on Tuesday -- it's dinner at French Laundry," Hipstamatic wrote. "Oggl isn't screenshots of your favorite album cover -- it's when you hung backstage with the band. Oggl isn't ducklips or bathroom selfies -- it's living like you mean it, your best creative work, and amazing life moments."
As Instagram has grown in breadth and popularity -- it now touts more than 100 million active monthly users -- it has left other photo apps, like Hipstamatic and Camera+, in the dust. Currently, Hipstamatic has 4 million users, according to The Next Web.
While Oggl is Hipstamatic's foray into social networking, it's not dropping its partnership with Instagram. All photos on Oggl can easily be shared on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, and Flickr.
Currently, Oggl is a free, invite-only app that comes pre-loaded with five situational shooting settings: nightlife, food, portraits, landscapes, and sunsets. For more lens and film options, Oggl offers two subscription plans, either monthly for $0.99 or yearly for $9.99.