Calling itself, rather curiously, 'Instagram for Windows 10 Tablets', by which I assume it's for any Windows 10 device on an ARM chipset, this official client has had a big update overnight. New to be enjoyed here are a type mode in Stories and various video modes and the possibility to send a choice of 'replay' or 'view once' media.
I'll preface this by saying that I'm not a huge Instagram user, so forgive any lapses in nomenclature. The new features do seem signficant, but there are glitches under Windows 10 Mobile - again, I'm assuming that 'ARM tablets' were mainly used in testing.
Still, an upgrade is an upgrade and there are some new features, which I'm sure I'll do a bad job in explaining, but here goes:
Pop-ups introduce the new features, here's a typical example; (right) the usual mis-matched microphone permission pop-up. Just tapping 'Enable microphone access' wasn't enough on my test phones.
Instead, I had to manually enable microphone access in Settings here. But your mileage may vary. Either way, to progress past the permissions screen, use the 'x' control provided and then play it by ear.
Another new feature. Let's see, do I really want other people to 'remix my photos and videos with stickers, text and drawings'? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Harumph. Maybe it's just me? (right) having shot a short video, I'm using the bottom of screen carousel of options to choose 'View once'. As it sounds, once viewed, the recipient (or person following you) can only see this once and then it's gone. Again, I can't see the point, but then I'm not in the 'Snapchat generation'! The new carousel option here is 'Allow replay' though, which is how I'd expect social media sharing to work, i.e. people can see your creations as much as they like.
Typing into a colourful background is a good way to create Instagram memes, but there's a nasty bug shown here in that switching font (here I'd gone to another and then back again) deletes the last word/line of your creation. Oh well. More testing needed, Instagram!
Choosing who to send my Instagram story to - in this case I went for 'View once' and Rafe. As you can see (right) he viewed my flower video/story, commented and, much as we both might want to, can't see it again.
I can see the point in disappearing media for teens 'sexting' each other perhaps, or for images or video which are entirely inconsequential, but why on earth would anyone normally use this mode? Again, I know I'm the wrong generation to be using this application. As is Rafe - he shoots wonderful nature photos for Instagram and the whole point is that others can view these photos as much as they like.
You can grab or update Instagram UWP for Windows 10 (Mobile)here in the Store. There are a few cosmetic issues in terms of screen layout. I really get the feeling that this update was as much for Windows 10 tablets (as quoted above) or even for Windows 10 on ARM computers/folding devices in the future, i.e, without needing any Win32 emulation layers. But no matter, it all (mainly) works under Windows 10 Mobile, so enjoy!
Comments welcome - how is Instagram UWP for ARM working out on your Lumia?