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Welcome to the Instagram blog! See what's happening around the world, right now, through photo features, user spotlights, photo tips and news from Instagram HQ.

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National Proposal Day, User Feature, video,

National Proposal Day: Carter Moore and Brooke Howe

Carter Moore (@iamcartermoore) and Brooke Howe (@brookehowe) had been dating for a few years when Carter decided he wanted to propose by asking Brooke to “start an adventure for a lifetime.” He decided to surprise her with a trip to Portland, but there was one problem—neither of them had ever been to Portland before. Carter turned to Instagram friends in Oregon for ideas. With their help, Carter was able to plan the entire trip and even find the spot where he would ask Brooke to marry him.

Even though they’d never met the couple in person, two of Carter’s Instagram friends in Portland, Branden Harvey and his friend Colin Cabalka, decided to take Carter and Brooke’s visit to the next level and surprise them with an engagement party. When Carter and Brooke arrived back from Ecola State Park, they were greeted with music, balloons and a whole lot of love.

The video above is about the touching story of their engagement, told for the first time at that party. A warm congratulations to Carter and Brooke on National Proposal Day!

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user feature, video,

Travel the American West with Nature and Wildlife Photographer @kevinruss

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to drop everything, get in your car, and start a photographic exploration of the world? Full-time traveler Kevin Russ (@kevinruss) did just that! He journeyed throughout the American West for an entire year and chased inspiration for his beautiful iPhone-only wildlife and nature photographs.

View the video above to hear about how Kevin captures his photos, what inspires him, why he uses Instagram, and some amazing stories from behind the lens. Be sure to follow @kevinruss for a look into his next great adventure!

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news, instagram news, video,

Instagram Now in 25 Languages

We’ve got some exciting new things in store with this update: new and improved language translations, a new filter, and updates to address the feedback we’ve heard from you!

Translations for 25 Languages

Today, we’re introducing new and improved translations for 25 languages on Instagram! You can now navigate Instagram in your native language—on both mobile devices and the web—making it easier for anyone around the world to sign up for an account.

Enjoying photos on Instagram may not require written language, but translating Instagram helps all users understand how to use the product by explaining concepts like: following, liking, hashtags, photo maps & locations. We use very few words in our product, but when we do they’re very important words to understand. By introducing 25 new and improved languages, we can welcome even more international users into the Instagram community!

Supported Languages:

  • Afrikaans — Afrikaans
  • Chinese — 中文 & 台灣
  • Czech — Český
  • Danish — Dansk
  • Dutch — Nederlands
  • Finnish — Suomi
  • French — Français
  • German — Deutsch
  • Greek — Ελληνικά
  • Indonesian — Bahasa Indonesia
  • Italian — Italiano
  • Japanese — 日本語
  • Korean — 한국어
  • Malay — Bahasa Melayu
  • Norwegian — Norsk
  • Polish — Polski
  • Portuguese — Português
  • Russian — Русский
  • Spanish — Español
  • Swedish — Svenska
  • Tagalog — Filipino
  • Thai — ภาษาไทย
  • Turkish — Türkçe

iOS Version 3.4.1

In addition to 25 new and improved translations we’re introducing a beautiful new filter—Mayfair! This filter has a warm pink tone, subtle vignetting that brightens the center of the photograph, and a thin black border. Mayfair works great with evenly and well-lit scenes in conjunction with the Lux feature.

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Instagram will now recognize if you’ve enabled Facebook integration with iOS 6, allowing people to easily sign up for an account or quickly connect an existing Instagram account with Facebook. This means you’ll no longer be brought to the Facebook app or a web-view to connect your account. Read more about this new feature in our Help Center.

We’ve also included the following updates based on your feedback:

  • The ability to select photographs from an album other than the Camera Roll.
  • Photos taken utilizing the front-facing camera will no longer be mirrored.
  • Fixed the inaccurate display of the privacy toggle switch present in version 3.4.
  • Fixed a bug that affected photo sharing for certain locales present in version 3.4.
  • Various bug fixes and improvements surrounding camera performance.

Android Version 3.4

In addition to 25 new and improved translations and the new Mayfair filter, the latest version of Instagram for Android allows Facebook Page moderators to connect and share directly to a brand page.

Note: iOS version 3.4.1 fixes a bug found in version 3.4 that displayed an inaccurate privacy toggle switch. It also fixes a bug that affected photo sharing for certain locales. Please update to version 3.4.1, released today (21 December), to resolve these issues.

Instagram version 3.4.1 is available for download in Apple’s App Store and Instagram version 3.4 is available for Android users in Google Play!

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user feature, onthecouch, video,

User Feature: @dankhole #onthecouch

Instagram had the opportunity to speak with Dan Cole, an Instagrammer from Seattle, Washington, with an eye for symmetry, lines and otherworldly architecture!

Be sure to follow Dan on Instagram at @dankhole in order to get inspiration for this weekend’s Hashtag Project, #WHPbuildingpatterns, and take a look at more of his photography on his website.

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instagram news, video, news,

Instagram 3.0 – Photo Maps & More

We’ve been working hard on a major update for both Apple and Android devices. We’re excited to announce that today Instagram 3.0 is available to everyone. Download Instagram 3.0 for Apple here or for Android here.

With every major release, we pick a theme – and for this one we’ve focused on the browsing experience. We’ve introduced a new and unique way to browse your photos and others’ photos on a map, which means you’re no longer constrained to browsing through page after page of photos. We’ve also worked hard on updating all the screens in our app to be more visually consistent and polished. You’ll notice new layouts throughout the app that feel fresh, yet familiar. Our engineers have also been hard at work making sure that the browsing experience is as fast as possible. On newer devices, you should notice a marked improvement in speed while browsing. With that, we’ve introduced infinite scrolling in feeds so that you can quickly see more photos while browsing around the app. And finally, we’ve paid special attention to keeping Instagram a safe place. With improved reporting tools, users can now flag both photos and comments for review with ease. We’re very excited by how much has gone into this release – as always, please provide us with feedback as you explore the new features.

Photo Maps

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Introducing Photo Maps, a new way to browse photos on Instagram. Your Photo Map appears on your profile and lets you showcase your photos on a map. Also, you’ll be able to see other users’ maps from their profiles as well.

Important: Before your map is visible to the public, you’ll be prompted to review any photos you previously geotagged. Additionally, we’ve made it easy to remove photos from your map at any time, which will remove any associated geo-data but leave the photos intact on your profile. To read more about how Photo Maps work, read more here.

New look for user profiles, the Explore tab, hashtag & location pages

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Also, we now display bigger grid photos to make it easier to browse large collections of photos and see them too. You’ll find bigger grid photos on user profiles, the Explore tab, as well as on hashtag and location pages.

New look for the photo upload screen

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  • Larger text box for captions: It’s now easier to write and edit longer captions for your photos.
  • Geotag your photos by selecting “Add to Your Photo Map”: Let people know where you took your photo by turning “Add to Your Photo Map” on. By enabling this feature on your photo, you will store your current location with the photo and it will show up on your map. You’ll also have the ability to choose a specific place name (e.g. “South Park Cafe”) to associate with your photo. Learn more in our help center.

Infinite scrolling (automatic “load more”)

Now, when you get to the bottom of a page, we’ll automatically load more photos for you — no need to tap a “load more” button.

Many speed improvements to make the app faster & more responsive

Instagram v3.0 contains many speed and loading optimizations on newer devices.

Users can now report individual comments as abuse or spam

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  • To ensure Instagram is a safe and fun place to share your photos, we’ve introduced a way to report comments. Now, just swipe right or tap on a comment and tap the trashcan icon. You can then select “Delete & Report Abuse” to remove the comment and report it in a single action. If you see an abusive or spammy comment on someone else’s photo, you can now easily report it as spam by following the steps above, though you will see a different icon instead of the trash icon. Note: Reporting comments that are not on your own photos is not included in the current Android version, but we do plan to add it in a future release.
  • Flagging a user has been simplified to one choice: “Report for Spam.” To report a user, tap the button at the top right corner of their profile page, then “Report for Spam.” If you’d like to report a user for other reasons, please report the abusive or spammy comments or images.
  • To report a photo, just tap the “…” button below the photo and then “Report Inappropriate.”

Visit the Instagram Help Center to learn more about version 3.0.

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pilgramers, user feature, video, onthecouch,

User Feature: Pilgramers #onthecouch

Where are the Pilgramers? July 21st - Oklahoma City, July 22nd - Dallas, July 23rd - Austin

Instagram had the opportunity to speak with the users behind “Pilgramers,” a group of Instagrammers traveling across the U.S. filming a web series while meeting fellow Instagram users! Starring: @curious2119, @jodyjohnston, @ryancarl & @thomasflight.

Be sure to watch the video that sparked it all, “Stuff Instagramers Say”, keep an eye on the Pilgramers’ YouTube channel for beautiful videos from their journey & follow @Pilgramers on Instagram!

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instameet, tips, video,

Tips for a Great InstaMeet

In just a few short days (8 to be precise!), the 5th Worldwide Instameet will kick off around the globe. Over 350 communities of Instagrammers are planning to get together and go on an adventure. Be sure to get involved over at meetup.com/Instagram.

Organizing your first InstaMeet? Veteran Instagrammer @DocPop shares his tips on how to put together a flawless Instawalk in the video above.

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jumpstagram, photo tips, tips, video,

Photo Tips: How to take the perfect #jumpstagram!

Jump Start: Show off your best leaping photograph by adding the “#jumpstagram” hashtag to your Instagram image.

Have you ever come across a beautiful photograph of a perfectly in-focus #jumpstagram in your Instagram feed? Do you find yourself dreaming about capturing the perfect jump photo — snapping at just the right moment so it looks like the jumper is flying — all with your mobile phone? Don’t worry, you don’t need a DSLR or a trampoline!

Just press play on the video above, watch, and learn! Instagram’s Community team is here to help — don’t forget to use the #jumpstagram hashtag when you put your newly acquired knowledge to use.

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user feature, video,

“Stuff Instagramers Say”

Check out this hilarious video a few Instagram users put together!

Directed by rycar; Starring jodyjohnstonrjzimontfosteraddingtondavidjcarl, & studiojohnny.

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team, user feature, video,

Our CEO + co-founder Kevin Systrom sits down with Kevin Rose to chat about the experiences that led up to launching his own startup and what’s ahead for Instagram.