Wednesday, December 19, 2012

An Alternative to Instagram (Updated)

Have you heard the news?  Instagram's new TOS give them the right to distribute and/or sell any of your public photos!  Because of this I and a lot of my Facebook friends will be deleting our accounts before January 16th, when the new Terms go into effect.


I'm really not too bummed about it.  I've only been using Instagram because my friends use it, not because I particularly like it.  I've been using PicsArt for a while now, though, because I think the photo editing is FAR superior.  All of the photos in this post are things I've quickly and easily done with PicsArt right on my phone.  Some of them I've shared with Facebook, some not.




Here's my current FB cover picture.



This is the first thing I ever dd on PicsArt.  It may not be a great example of quality art or photography, but I think it illustrates that if you can think it, you can create it!




Here's some thing I posted to my mom's FB page, just to let her know I was thinking of her.



And here I used pictures of Matt's birthday card to Daddy to make him an Ecard.

SO... now that you see how much awesomer Picsart is over Instagram, I expect you all to be making the switch.
You can find it in the Google Play Store, and yes, it's free!  As you can see, they have a ton more FX and goodies to play around with than Instagram, and you can still share instantly to FB and other websites.  And you can still tag photos and follow all of your friends.   So go check it out!  And if you do, look me up, my username is NicoleH907 :)




 I've been hearing a lot of people say that Instagram's new Terms of Use have been misinterpreted, that it's all a big misunderstanding, that they don't *intend* to sell rights to users' pictures.  Let's have a closer look at offending sections of the new Terms of Use.  I copy/pasted this right from their Updated Terms:

Rights

  1. Instagram does not claim ownership of any Content that you post on or through the Service. Instead, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the Content that you post on or through the Service, except that you can control who can view certain of your Content and activities on the Service as described in the Service's Privacy Policy, available here: http://instagram.com/legal/privacy/So, if your pictures are NOT public you should be safe...
  2. Some or all of the Service may be supported by advertising revenue. To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you. If you are under the age of eighteen (18), or under any other applicable age of majority, you represent that at least one of your parents or legal guardians has also agreed to this provision (and the use of your name, likeness, username, and/or photos (along with any associated metadata)) on your behalf.
  3. You acknowledge that we may not always identify paid services, sponsored content, or commercial communications as such. 

8 comments:

  1. I like the different templates Picsart has. I'll definitely have to check them out! Thanks for this post! =)

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  2. I never got Instagram... I like words too much and don't like the fact that I can't use them....lol. I am going to go check this out, however, because of the cute templates!!

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  3. I wasn't too affected by the new TOS but I just read (while I was on Instagram earlier) that it was misunderstood by many. They won't be selling or distributing your photos nor will they take away your rights as owners of your photos. But this alternative is great. I've been using this photo framer app but it doesn't allow me to make slanted frames like your first photos.

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  4. Did you read #1 and #2 on the Rights section of the Terms?
    "To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you."

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  5. very cool info---not an instagram user so I will not miss a thing ;D

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  6. I can't imagine, with all the options out there, why instagram would deliberately anger its users. I'm not on instagram and certainly wouldn't use it with all this bad publicity. Thanks for the info.

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  7. Thanks for the advice, I've been trying to figure out how to download instagram onto my facebook page. Maybe I will try the PicsArt as long as it's not to hard to install on FB

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  8. Although I find their new terms confusing and in a way scary, I will find it difficult to let go of my Instagram completely. Especially with the almost 1k photos that I have on it. :(

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