Following a rebrading, late-yesterday, third-party Instagram client Itsdagram shed its name and looks and surfaced as the new Instance on Windows Phone Store. The app, which boasts the same essential functionality as before, now sports a redesigned interface and introduces a couple of new features and enhancements.
According to the developer, Daniel Gary, the app's rebranding follows Microsoft's request to better differentiate Itsdagram from Instagram. The software giant appears to pursue the path of least resistance in order to beef up the Windows Phone ecosystem and keep third-party apps in the running. Gary says that no legal action nor "threats" influenced his decision to comply with the request. Now let's go through the changes introduced by Instance.
Instance drops the older UI (User Interface) in favor of a new one which now looks different to the mobile Instagram website. The latest design sports big cards (similar to Google+ on Android and iOS) for each photo and continues to offer dedicated pages for "popular" and "activity" (available by swiping).
Users can now take advantage of gestures to get the latest updates from Instagram. Swiping down from the top of the page refreshes the image feed, similar to Facebook or Twitter on Windows Phone 8 and other platforms.
Instance touts faster loading times compared to Itsdagram and fixes two bugs that prevented users from finding Facebook friends and caused registration issues.
Instance is available to download from Windows Phone Store.