How to use Instagram on Nokia Lumia

Instagram Beta has been available in the Windows Phone store for several months now. With more than 150 million users worldwide, Instagram has become the app of choice when it comes to snapping anything from cups of coffee to the selfie – and then adding a filter to it.

For those new to the hugely popular photo-sharing community, here’s how it works on Nokia Lumia.

Create an account. Installed on your Lumia running Windows Phone 8 (scan the QR code on the right to download) you must first create an account.

That complete, you’ll likely want to connect your other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Foursquare or VKontakte to your new Instagram account. This ensures your photo-sharing receives maximum coverage.

Divided into four sections, Instagram Beta displays; Timeline, Trending, Notifications, and Profile – all easily accessible by swiping from right to left.

Follow and be followed. 

Much like other social apps, following people is the key to seeing new content appear in the Timeline.
Your first follow should be Nokia, of course, and after that be sure you check out our 10 Instagramers Nokia Lumia lovers should follow post to get started.

To leave a comment to an image, tap on the comment icon and start typing, and if you want to like a photo you can either double-tap the image or press on the like icon.

The Trending section is rather self explanatory; it shows you 15 popular Instagram photos or videos based on the amounts of likes and comments. If something grabs your attention, here’s your chance to add a comment or like to join the rest of the community.

Whenever somebody follows you or likes one of your photos, you’ll be made aware of this fact in the Notification section. It’s a good place to see which of your photos are more engaging to the Instagram crowd.

Your Profile shows precisely what you’ve uploaded and also shows you the number of followers you have, as well as the number of people you’re following. It’s also in the Profile section you can make easy edits to your profile such as adding a bio, or choosing to keep your profile private – if you prefer.

Uploading photos

There are a few ways to upload a photo with Instagram Beta. Launch Nokia Camera app on your phone, take a photo and then from the photo options simply tap on share and select Instagram Beta. This takes you straight into the image editing section of the app.

This is a great way to make use of some of the great features within Nokia Camera.

With Nokia Camera you can create Action Shots – like the ones below – for extra creativity and share them on Instagram.

https://instagram.com/p/jR1ZTVw69F/

https://instagram.com/p/jOvYDiQ66M/

Alternatively, you can select an image by tapping the camera icon at the bottom of the screen within the Instagram app. This will initially show you the photos stored in your camera roll, and tapping the camera icon again will open the camera viewfinder where you can take a new photo.

Your first step will be to crop your image to make it conform to Instagram’s square photo style. After that, you can apply any of the filters available such as, XPro-II, Earlybird, Rise, Amaro, Hudson, Lo-fi, Sutro, Toaster, Brannan, Inkwell, Walden, Hefe, Nashville, 1977, and others. And of course, you can add a frame, or even use the radial and linear tilt-shift blur to add focus to certain parts of the photo.

Adding context

Next up, add a caption. Searching for other images around the Instagram network is much easier if you use hashtags (#), so make sure you add hashtags into your captions – but only hashtag keywords, not all of them.

Here are some of the most popular Nokia related hashtags:

#Lumia – with 84k posts
#Lumia1020 – 47k posts
#Lumia920 – 46k posts
#NokiaLumia – 25k posts
#NokiaLumia920 – 8k posts
#NokiaLumia1020 – 8k posts

There’s also the option to add a location using the Photo Map function, and to Tag People on Instagram. This highlights who might have been with you at the time, or to just inform them of a cool new photo.

Now all that’s left to do is to upload the photo to the Instagram community, including your other social networks if you wish, and wait for the likes and comments to come rolling in.

Our tip is to pin Instagram Beta to your Start screen as a Live tile. That way you’ll be informed straight away when somebody likes or comments on your photos, or when new followers are gained.

Download Instagram Beta today – for free – and start sharing your photos.