If for one reason or another, you cannot download the Instagram app on your mobile device but you’d still like to experience some form of the photo sharing app, your other option would be to go on its mobile web version. Previously, you could only browse, follow some accounts, like, search, and look at your notifications in this version. But now, finally after months of testing, they are finally letting users upload and share photos from the browser version on your mobile device.
Aside from the ability to upload and share photos, the mobile web version has also added a lite version of the Explore tab so you can find photos and users that you might want to follow. However, there are still a few limitations to the non-app version as you cannot upload videos, you cannot apply filters, you cannot post stories and there is still no direct messaging. You can do minimal editing like rotating or toggling between square or wide crop version, but that’s about it.
This is just the latest move for the company to make the platform more accessible for people outside the US, targeting 80% of its current users. We’ve seen web sign-ups, offline functionality, better on-boarding for low-end Android users. These have helped them add 100 million users in just the last 4 months. However, the desktop web version of Instagram is still pretty basic and isn’t included in the expanded mobile web version update.
There is no news if we will soon see an Instagram Lite version of the app as well, just like what its mother company Facebook has done. This will be a boon for users who have limited space, processing power or data allocation on their devices but would still want to have an Instagram app there.
VIA: Tech Crunch
