There’s No Native Instagram App For BlackBerry 10, But This Ported Android Version Gets The Job Done

BlackBerry 10 may have launched with over 70,000 apps, but fans of taking pictures of their lunch were saddened to learn that Instagram wasn’t one of them. While there’s still no official version of Instagram for BlackBerry 10 devices, the folks at BerryThai obtained and released a repackaged version of the app ready to load onto a Z10 near you.

Before you get excited and run off to snap and share some ridiculous photos, know this: this is most definitely not a new, BlackBerry 10-centric version of Instagram, it’s a port of a slightly older Instagram Android build. As such, you’ll have to sideload the app onto your BlackBerry 10 device — it’s not exactly a difficult process, but you do need to be least somewhat proficient with a command line (CrackBerry has some great guides for sideloading from a Windows or an OS X machine)

As you’d probably expect, the experience is hardly a perfect one. Snapping photos and sharing them seems to work just fine (though the Z10’s camera doesn’t always grab the best shots), but scrolling through the photo feed is an awfully sluggish affair and new users won’t be able to create an account from within the app. For now though, this (or something like it) may be all that BlackBerry 10 devotees have to look forward to for now. According to a recent report from AllThingsD, the Instagram team isn’t particularly bullish on BlackBerry 10, with one unnamed source noting that they weren’t sure a native version of the Instagram app would ever be released.

It’s unclear how BerryThai managed to get a hold of the file in question, but the site’s host shut the whole thing down not long after people started to notice what they had gotten their hands on. Instagram has reportedly been working on an Android port of the app for BlackBerry 10 for some time now (The Verge’s Dieter Bohn may have spotted it at the launch event once the theatrics were over), so it’s possible that the .bar file BerryThai is peddling came from an internal source. Then again, it’s also possible that an eager enthusiast did the conversion on their own, though the track record points to some difficulties on that front.

Frankly though, this version of Instagram is just enough of a headache to keep me from wanting to use it — hopefully whatever official version eventually gets released manages to clear up a few of these nagging issues.