While the world waits for Instagram to launch a location-sharing feature à la Snapchat, it’s worth wondering about the potential arrival of something far more simple and obvious: user-preset filters.
Instagram now allows you to prioritize your favorite filters at the beginning of the list and leave the ones that you don’t use often at the end. However, each user has their own individual style on Instagram and a single filter will not represent that. Plus, it takes a lot of time and energy to go back and add the same exact preferences to almost every photo.
More often than not, I use the same effects, filters, etc. for the same types of photos. For selfies, I prefer Nashville at around 60 percent. For landscapes, I prefer something more vibrant, perhaps Lofi or X-Pro II. But even beyond that, I always add my own color tones and photo effects (like vignette, saturation, etc.) to most photos on the app.
Imagine having your own filter that is a combination of your favorite Instagram effects, color tones, filters and levels. Users could then share those individually built filters with each other. Not only would this be a convenient feature for users, but it offers Instagram another possible revenue model.
Pro photographers and top-level Instagrammers often use the same exact Photoshop effects on almost all of their photos. This gives their photos that unique quality that makes them individualized and recognizable to their fans.
VSCO, which is used by many of the big names on Instagram, already offers preset user filters, but the interface is relatively difficult to use. It would only benefit Instagram to let big-name Instagrammers and average users alike customize the app to their individual preferences.
Plus, pro photographers like Cubbygraham could build out a revenue model for themselves and Instagram by potentially selling these filters as in-app purchases.
Of course, this isn’t a direct copy of Snapchat’s pipeline so it may be outside the realm of reality. But a girl can dream.