Facebook launches Camera App for iOS

What do you do when you spend $1 billion to buy a photo sharing and editing mobile application? Make your own version of it of course. Facebook announced that they've launched a specific app just for photos. The app currently has two functions. The first one which is minor provides you, in Newsfeed format, the photos that your friends upload to Facebook, be it entire albums or just wall photos and mobile uploads. The other feature is, of course, photo sharing and editing. The app allows you to take a photo, add an effect and upload directly to your Facebook account. The filters are similar to Instagram filters with different names like "Emerald", "Copper", "Coffee" and "Cream".  To actually upload a photo that you've taken from the app or to have the app access your photo library, you have to turn your location services on. For those of you on limited data plans, you might want to be careful with how much you use the app because of this. The app does allow you to share multiple photos in one go.

Screenshots of Facebook Camera for iOS

The application comes, interestingly, after Facebook bought Instagram. It's like they thought that they wanted to build their own app anyway and to do that, they need to buy out a potential plaintiff. The application, right now, provides nothing terribly new and as it is right now, is unlikely to have users ditching Instagram. Of course, through this app, users are not able to share to rival social networks like Twitter and Tumblr which could also work against it. The app is buggy, like its regular Facebook counterpart and has crashed as well as taken an inordinate amount of time to edit a photo.

When Facebook updated its Android application last month, it created a seperate 'camera app' that could be accessed directly from the homescreen. This app is different from the one that Facebook just announced as it is just a basic camera app where you can upload your photos and tag them. You cannot see your friends' photos in Newsfeed format, and you can't add filters to your photographs. Another Facebook app that you can add filters to, though, is the Facebook for Every Phone application. With that app, when you upload a photo, you can choose whether you want to add a greyscale or a sepia tone to your image. The Facebook Camera app has more filters, but interestingly, doesn't have a tilt shift focus feature yet. The app is available for free from the iOS App Store. Will you use the app? Or will you stick to Instagram? Let us know in the comments below.