6tag updated with Windows 10 design and improved search.

6tag, the unofficial but full-featured Instagram app for Windows Phone has been updated today, bumping the app version to 5.5. The app interface has been updated to match the Windows 10 design. The search feature has also been improved so "you can search places and search user/hashtags/places at the same time." Note that the official Instagram app for Android received a similar update on the 20th of July. The last item in the change log is about a feature that lets user "press and hold the camera button in the application bar to directly select a file." 

I have not been able to update the app yet, even though it shows an update is available. I'm not sure if there's something broken with the store, but tapping update button opens 6tag instead. All my devices are running Windows 10 Mobile, so that could also be an issue. Has anyone been able to update 6tag?

Download the update in the Windows Phone Store. 

Instagram Client for Windows Phone gets video upload, 3 new filters, emojis and more in latest update.

Any serious Instagramers know that 6tag, a third party Instagram client for Windows Phone, provides the ultimate experience for filtered/unfiltered squared images. Likely, any serious Instagramers who use both Windows Phone and Android know that 6tag have some exclusive features that makes 6tag better than the official Instagram app. With that said, 6tag picked up an important update that brings it to version 5.0 that adds three new filters. But the most notable addition is support for uploading videos from your phone and saving them to your phone too. 

Here's the full change log:

• 3 new filters: Lark, Reyes, Juno.
• Video upload from your phone.
• Save video on your phone.
• Import/Export files from the other apps (including Dropbox).
• Emoji hashtags.
• Refreshed UI.
• Performance improvement.

Source: Windows Phone Store.

Xim pictures directly from your Windows Phone camera.

Xim is a nice app for sharing photos with friends and families without giving them your phone. This is particularly useful when you're, say, attending a party and you do not want to see your phone moving around when all you want is your friends to see a picture that is either on your camera roll or your favorite cloud service and nothing else. 

Sharing a photo with Xim is done either by email or a phone number and the Xim app is not required on the phone or desktop. So you may be sharing photos to 10 friends and you are the only one with Xim app installed. Your friends will receive a link by email or text and view the photo in their phone's browser. You, as the sharer, are in control since Xim lets you swipe, pan and zoom on the photo.

As stated above, Xim lets you pick the photos you want to share from your camera roll, OneDrive, Dropbox, Facebook and Instagram. In an update published today, Xim lets you use the phone's camera to take a picture and share it right away.

This update also includes the usual performance improvements and bug fixes.

Download Xim free in the Windows Phone store.

6tag (Instagram) and 6snap (Snapchat) for Windows Phone updated.

The two excellent unofficial Instagram (6tag) and Snapchat (6snap) clients for Windows Phone have been updated today. Developed by Windows Phone star developer, Rudy Huyn, 6tag and 6snap include features that are not even available on official clients on competing platforms. Windows Phone does have an official Instagram client currently in beta.

In the update published yesterday, 6tag has been bumped to version 3.3.1 which now lets users check followers requests on a new page. An issue with user search has also been fixed. Finally the last improvement brings better support for Russian language.

6snap is the unofficial client for Windows Phone. In today's update the developer added better conversation management. Users are now able to either delete a specific conversation or all of them.

Both updates are live in the store. Use the links below to download the apps or update them:

6tag
6snap

6snap (SnapChat) and 6tag(Instagram) updated.

Two mighty third party apps for Windows Phone have been updated. Both apps have been developed by Rudy Hyun, the most prolific Windows Phone developer I know. This guy is probably more busy than the president of the United States and yet he finds the time to create new apps while updating current ones. 

Before Instagram even considered building an official app for Windows Phone, Rudy Hyun had a full featured client for my favourite mobile platform. Instagram recently released an official client for Windows Phone in beta version. It is one client that utterly sucks when compared to Rudy's fully dedicated work.

Rudy has updated two of his most popular apps today.

6snap (SnapChat)

- View snaps without holding the screen (option in settings)
- add new snapchat captcha when create a new account 
- optimize performance

6tag (Instagram)

- Save instagram videos to your Skydrive
- bug fixes

6tag update: Save Instagram videos to your SkyDrive.

Some developers rest on their laurels, others don't. Rudy Huyn is one of those developers who almost relentless work on improving their apps. Before Facebook and Instagram made up their mind to provide a beta app for Windows Phone, Rudy Huyn had 6tag, an excellent Instagram client. The app is still my favorite Instagram client app on my Windows Phone.

6tag was updated yesterday that lets users save Instagram videos to their SkyDrive. I have never used the video feature of Instagram, just like I'm not a fan of Vine, but I'm pretty sure this added feature will be welcomed by the fans. The update also includes the usual bug fixes.

The update is available free for download in the Windows Phone Store.

Instagram Beta for Windows Phone 8 released.

Facebook and it's recently acquired Instagram have finally released a beta version of the official Instagram app for Windows Phone 8 devices. Mark the BETA moniker, meaning the app is still in the works and may contain bugs or lack some features. But if you're a fan of filtered pictures, you are probably happy with this release. Or maybe not because you have been using 6tag, the excellent full-featured Instagram client. 

Instagram Beta is currently free for download in the Windows Phone Store.

Features:

• 100% free custom designed filters: XPro-II, Earlybird, Rise, Amaro, Hudson, Lo-fi, Sutro, Toaster, Brannan, Inkwell, Walden, Hefe, Nashville, 1977, and others.
* Video recording with breathtaking cinematic stabilization
• Linear and Radial Tilt-Shift blur effects for extra depth of field.
• Instant sharing to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr and Foursquare
• Unlimited uploads
• Interact with friends through giving & receiving likes and comments
• Full front & back camera support
• And much much more...

Instagram client 6tag updated to version 2.0, lets you do collage and adds dark theme support.

I never showed any interest for Instagram on my Galaxy Nexus. The latter being an Android phone, it has the official Instagram app which I did not find appealing. Hence my non-interest for the online photo sharing platform now owned by Facebook. Windows Phone has still not been blessed with an official client of Instagram. While this is a point that Windows Phone bashers like to bring forward, I think it is a good thing because Windows Phone already has an excellent Instagram client with 6tag. This app got me hooked to Instagram while the official app on my Galaxy Nexus failed. Plus the app has been getting more updates lately then the official one. Let's not indulge into platform bashing. It's pointless.

6tag has a received a major update today bringing its version to 2.0. Besides the version number change, the app got a slew of features.

What's new:

- create collage with a lot of customization
- blur your pictures using your finger
- can display full-screen posts
- new color theme : full dark color
- save your pictures on your phone when you post in high quality (up to 2048x2048)
- upload pictures using the new instagram and better picture quality (640x640 instead of 612x612)

6tag is of course free to download on the Windows Phone Store.

#2InstaWithLove gets two more filters: Lumia & Nightshot.

                                Nightshot                                        Lumia

I'm telling you, at this trend, #2InstaWithLove will soon become an "Instagram" of its own. Nokia has added two more filters: Lumia and Nightshot, bringing the numbers of filters to four. #2InstaWithLove is very simple to use and sharing to social networks is just a tap away. With Windows Phone sales on the rise, #2InstaWithLove could prove to be a wise investment. Check out the two samples above. To update #2InstaWithLove, simply launch the app. 

Nokia releases app for Windows Phone users to "petition" Instagram.

I can't figure why everyone is craving so much for Instagram on Windows Phone. I personally do not use it on Android and nor do I know anyone around me who does. And most of these people have Android phones, for now. I definitely use my phone to snap pictures on the go and I do not apply filters to them. But for sharing, I use Facebook and Twitter. No need to have another social network. That's why I question the very existence of Instagram. With that we're soon going to have a social network for about everything.

But again, it seems nowadays that a phone without Instagram is not a phone. Nokia is serious about that to the point of creating an app to help Windows Phone users to communicate with Instagram team to petition them to make an app for their Windows Phones. "The app allows Windows Phone users to have their voice heard so that instead of letters, chocolates, mix tapes or petitions (although very effective in some cases), the community can speak directly to Instagram and the Instagram community in a way they can respect…through the use of beautiful photography." 

The app lets you take pictures and apply a "classic polaroid filter" and share it to your favorite social network with the hashtag #2InstaWithLove. The hashtag is also the name of the free app. If you want to join the Instagram-on-Windows phone campaign, download a free copy of the app from the Windows Phone Store.

Source: Conversations by Nokia

Free: Mehdoh - Twitter client for Windows phone with Instagram account support.

Mehdoh is a nice Twitter client for Windows Phone and Windows Phone 7.x. The app is currently free, so go get it now as I doubt it will  remain so for long. Mehdoh is fast compared to the other Twitter clients I use on my HTC 8X and supports Instagram account.

Features:

- Multiple twitter account support. 
- Instagram account support (feed/popular/profiles/searching). 
- Soundcloud account support (with background audio player!)
- Twitter Streaming (real-time feeds).
- Twitter Lists. 
- Lock screen notifications and live tile (WP8 only)
- Lock screen wallpaper (WP8 only)
- Voice commands (WP8 only)
- Inline media previews.
- Image / website previews in the app
- Fully customisable layout. An amazing new clutter-free photo timeline... the list goes on! 
- LOTS more features and fully configurable.

Download: Windows Phone Store