Instagram’s highly-anticipated official Windows Phone app has arrived in a spectacularly messy fashion.
The Facebook-owned photo-sharing app is now available through the Windows Store with a “BETA” tag appended (all caps and everything). It’s clearly a work in progress, with several missing features, and Instagram itself is sending mixed messages about what the Windows Phone version can and can’t do.
The good news is that Instagram’s Windows Phone app lets you thumb through friends’ photos, add “Likes” and comments, and apply a variety of filters to your own pictures.
But can you actually take photos directly through the app, like you can on Instagram’s iOS and Android apps? Instagram says you can’t, but apparently that’s not true. As The Verge reports:
Instagram claims the app does not support in-app photo taking, but we found that it works just fine. Windows Phone users will be directed to their camera roll instead of a camera interface initially, but a camera button at the bottom leads into the camera UI where you can snap a picture and apply a filter before sharing.
How about video uploads? The Verge’s story says it’s not possible in the Windows Phone version. But as of this writing, the app’s Windows Store page touts “Video recording with breathtaking cinematic stabilization.” It appears that Instagram is quite confused about the capabilities of its own app.
You also can’t tag people in the photos you do take, though you can untag yourself from other people’s photos.
At least the app exists to begin with. Hopefully Instagram can work out the kinks–as soon as the company figures out what those kinks are–and lift the “BETA” tag before long. Until then, third-party Instagram apps like 6tag still have some life left in them.