Hipstamatic and Instagram unveiled a partnership today to make mobile photo-sharing easier under the two forces, according to an exclusive report from Fast Company. Instagram will grant Hipstamatic access to a write API — something Instagram has been reluctant to do in the past for third parties — which will allow Hipstamatic users to quickly share their photos with Instagram followers.
Hipstamatic has remained a popular iPhone app for a couple of years now. Users take photos using unique “lenses” (read: filters) to add special effects or moods and then share them off to social networks. Instagram has similar features, but Instagram is a social network in itself. The integration between the two is simple. When you snap a new photo on Hipstamatic and want to share it, you’ll now have the option to share it directly onto Instagram alongside all the other standard options like Facebook or Twitter. Once posted on Instagram, the photo will have a small footnote that reads “Taken with Hipstamatic.”
“Really it all comes down to this: People post Hipstamatic photos on Instagram all the time, and we just want to make that experience easier,” said Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom. Hipstamatic CEO Lucas Buick concurs. “When we launched, it was all about Facebook and Flickr and Twitter, and now we’re seeing a huge shift in our user base toward Instagram,” he said. “We’ve never been a social networking company, but we clearly benefit from social networks. So this will be the first app outside of Instagram that lets you into their network.”
Instagram is free and Hipstamatic is $1.99. Both are available in the iOS App Store.