What apps are similar to Instagram?
Anything that’s popular gets copied. Whenever anyone hits the jackpot with a business idea, it ensures imitators and other products and services trying to get a piece of the pie.
Social media has made it more popular than ever to share parts of your life with the world. Whenever you want to learn more about someone, social media is a good first step to see what they’re all about.
Image sharing social media apps have become extremely popular. As humans, we process visual information – and are more attracted to visuals – much more than text.
So, it’s no surprise that image-based social media apps are a huge trend. Just look at Snapchat, Pinterest, TikTok, and YouTube and their visual-first nature.
With features like stories, Reels, filters, and others, Instagram is the top photosharing app globally. While TikTok has provided some competition, Instagram has continued to grow.
At the same time, Instagram has come under fire for how it may negatively contribute to self-image, as it pertains to standards of beauty and lifestyle trends.
Whatever the knock on Instagram, if you’re looking for an Instagram alternative where you can share pictures, we have a list of apps like Instagram that could identify some viable alternatives.
They might not be as big as some of the stalwarts, but many are rapidly growing in users and popularity.
Table of Contents
Flickr
Flickr has been around for a long time and caters more toward professional photographers and artists.
Standing out on Flickr is heavily about producing high-quality photos with great resolution.
The social features of the app also enable you to interact with other photographers and those who appreciate good visual work.
Flickr also functions as a cloud storage app, so images can be stored safely for use later.
The pros of Flickr include the fact that it’s less crowded than Instagram and has more quality than quantity.
At the same time, the main con of the app is that it isn’t anywhere near as popular. Engagement is lower and posts don’t as easily go viral.
Flickr has its niche. If you take great photos and don’t mind sharing with other like-minded people (especially other photography and design professionals), Flickr can be a great place.
Imgur
Imgur is more popular than Flickr and has higher engagement to boot.
Like other photosharing apps, Imgur enables you to upload photos, which can then be viewed and shared by other users.
Imgur is also less formal than Flickr. Memes and other humorous content are popular and can receive lots of engagement.
There’s also lots of good, original content.
Imgur also works well with sites like Reddit. If you’ve spent some amount of time on Reddit, you’ll have probably seen Imgur links in posts at one point or another.
Imgur also enables you to create GIFs, and you’ve likely seen the Imgur watermark in many GIFs around the internet.
Imgur’s versatility makes it a viable Instagram alternative for photosharing purposes.
Pinterest isn’t just for 30-something moms. It’s effectively a visual search engine.
If you’re looking for information shared in a visual way, Pinterest can be a great app to get traction.
Pinterest enables you to share images as well as find them.
While you can follow individual accounts, Pinterest largely works based on keywords.
So if you’re looking for interior design ideas, you’ll see a variety of pins that can provide you the information you’re looking for.
Pinterest isn’t as social as some other apps. Some love Pinterest, and others just never quite got into it.
But it can be a great way for those who just want to look at good pictures without the noise and some of the toxicity of Instagram.
Pinterest is still mostly popular with women and those under the age of 40.
Tumblr
Tumblr isn’t what it once was a long time ago. It’s sort of a photosharing MySpace – a once-popular app that’s faded.
But it’s still one of the more popular and most recognizable social media platforms out there.
Sharing is easy on Tumblr with its interface and isn’t bad to navigate once you get used to it.
Tumblr enables you to share photos, videos, GIFs, and basically any type of content, text or visual. Memes are also common. Hashtags have been traditionally popular on Tumblr.
Tumblr is missing many of the features of the current photosharing giants like Instagram and Snapchat. You won’t see stories or videos/reels available on Tumblr as they are on IG and Snap.
Will Tumblr adjust and become relevant again, or has time passed it by?
You can always give it a shot and see what you think.
Retrica
Retrica is an app that’s copied a lot of the features of the popular apps and even looks to surpass them in some ways.
For example, Retrica has the upper hand over Instagram when it comes to filters and they’re of a relatively high quality.
The photosharing capacities aren’t as strong and you won’t get the same level of engagement as an app like Instagram, but it’s coming along slowly.
Retrica’s interface isn’t as intuitive as it would ideally be. If you’re used to Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and others, it can take a while to get used to.
You can see Retrica growing in popularity. It may never become one of the giants, but the filters (quality and quantity) give it some true value.
Flipagram
Flipagram is designed to compete directly with Instagram.
You’ll notice the interface is very similar. Features include videos, stories, and others available on the big platforms.
Flipagram is also easily sharable. You can share your posts on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, WhatsApp, Kik, Email, and others.
Cluster
Cluster prides itself on its privacy element.
In the world of social media, many have concerns over their life becoming too much of an open book and easily oversharing.
For example, just one picture can provide a lot of information – appearance, surroundings, location, what you value, what you do for a living, and so on.
Cluster’s more discreet nature lets you share photos and videos with only those you really care about.
Instagram enables this feature in some form as well, with private mode to avoid trolls who spam your pictures and content.
Does Cluster have enough of a concept to become popular?
It’s worth giving it a shot to see if it’s right for you.
The interface is somewhat similar to Instagram with the grid design.
The app is available on iOS and Android.
We Heart It
We Heart It is a photosharing app, though it’s quite different from Instagram in various ways.
We Heart It is heavily known for its inspirational and positive focus.
The app is known for things like motivational quotes, uplifting images, and the positive elements of things. There’s a bit of a ‘peace and love’ vibe to it.
This breaks from the comparison nature of Instagram.
We Heart It also isn’t just photos and written text. You can find videos and GIFs as well.
As you might guess, the app skews heavily toward women (like Pinterest) and is heavily popular with those under 25 years old.
Muzy
Muzy focuses on making your social media profiles more attractive to help increase your followers and overall engagement.
In that sense, it’s not a direct competitor to other photosharing apps.
For example, Muzy helps you build collages of pictures that you can then post to Instagram, Facebook, or just to your internal camera roll or wherever you like to store photos.
Muzy also provides features like frames, quotes, and filters to enhance your profile without making things too overdone.
Muzy has its own social features as well. You can view collages and photos of your friends on the app and use them for your own ideas.
The app is available on iOS and Android.
VSCO
VSCO is quite similar to Instagram in many ways. You can take photos and upload them on the app, and add captions and hashtags where other users can look at them.
VSCO’s main differentiating factor is its ability to edit and enhance photos with the context of a fairly minimal and easy-to-use interface.
The app has lots of filters that you can use to improve image quality. This is available on other apps.
VSCO’s advantage is through the took kit section in the app, which has a variety of ways to take care of various details.
For example, you can improve contrast, clearness, skin tone, and various other features to improve images to your liking.
You can add the edited photos back to your camera roll or share them to other social media platforms.
Facebook might seem like anything from an obvious to weird inclusion on a list of Instagram alternatives.
But as most know, Facebook owns Instagram, so they’ve crossed features in some ways.
Facebook has also declined in relative popularity among younger users in recent years. For example, the number of teenagers using Facebook has gone from 94% in 2012 to under 30% today.
So, Facebook has included more of its sister platform’s features to stay more relevant, including featuring images, stories, and videos with plenty of ways to customize the content.
Facebook isn’t anywhere near an app like Snapchat in this respect, but it’s improving.
Conclusion
This list included 11 apps like Instagram.
- Flickr
- Imgur
- Tumblr
- Retrica
- Flipagram
- Cluster
- We Heart It
- Muzy
- VSCO
Many of these apps have many of the same features, but all try to differentiate in their own ways to bring something unique to their audiences.
So if you’re looking for apps similar to Instagram and want to try out something new, this list should have something that meets your tastes.
