It looks like album uploads will soon be coming to Instagram. The photo sharing app appears to be playing around with a new feature that will allow users to upload multiple images in a single post. The Verge, Droid-Life, and Philip Chang on Twitter have all confirmed the presence of the new (albeit buggy) feature in the latest beta version of the Instagram app for Android devices.
According to beta users who have been able to access the album functionality, it appears that the multi-image experience will be very similar to what businesses are currently able to do with their ads, namely, multiple images in a left-to-right carousel that can be quickly swiped through. While the beta feature does not currently allow you to upload albums, users have been able to select multiple images and see a preview of the album interface when editing their images. In it's current state, the beta allows a user to select up to 10 images and it seems reasonable to expect that number to stay the same once the feature goes live to all users.
Personally, I see pros and cons to the new feature. I've never really liked the collage option of sticking multiple photos into one image, so being able to post 10 images as a group is very appealing to me. Albums would definitely give a more controlled option for telling stories with your images than simply mass uploading 10 individual shots. I do wonder how albums will display on profile pages. Will there be an icon to denote multiple images? Some sort of cross-fade preview? However they accomplish it, I can't imagine it disrupting the user experience all that much, all though I'm sure there will be plenty of naysayers who will object to the new addition.
So what do you think? Instagram albums, good or bad?
[via The Verge]
I think it'll be awesome and it'll make for a more interesting way to tell a story or deliver a message.
I like the idea of being able to group photos into albums but I'm curious about the implementation. Will you be able to group things after they've uploaded or only as a batch upload? One of the tenets of growing and maintaining a following is posting content regularly and frequently; I know I don't produce enough good work that I could be posting albums all at once and be posting content on a daily or near daily basis. On the other hand it wold make a lot of sense for some of the insta-magazines to post albums of related photos.
I can only recall three times having this would work better. On Facebook i posted together detail shots about the Oregon forests (mushrooms, leaves, etc), when shooting the Denver Protests over Donald Trump, and would work with concert photos to but I don't do that anymore. So definitely could help. Just have to wait and see what the cons are.
Facebook being what it is, they can't help but willfully break the things that made IG what it was.... Facebooking IG is not something I'm thrilled with. Making IG more Facebook like is a bad thing.