Instagram has lost it's Instant
In the beginning, Instagram was an instant affair. Snap a shot, quickly select a filter and post. The origin of the actual name Instagram is actually from the combination of the two words: Instant / telegram.
Sure, the quality of the photos weren't that great in the early days, there was less control over adjusting filter effects and even less post-processing photo apps available in the app store. But it made it an instant experience. People would post a snapshot about their daily activities and provide a closer to real-time photo diary of their daily happenings.
Nowadays, the quality of the photos (and quantity for that matter) has definitely increased, but it no longer has the daily diary like snap shots of peoples lives. Take a million photos, put them through 10 different photo editing apps, mess with them for hours and then post the photos: x amount of days after the fact #latergram.
The latest Instagram update even allows you to adjust the photo all the way down to exposure, saturation, grain, contrast etc adding another layer of complexity on top of the already abundant (but non the less sucky) filter selection. Sorry Instagram, this won't stop me from taking my photos to VSCO first.
I'm not sure if I hate that Instagram has lost it's instant, but it sure does waste a lot more of my time. Snapchat has probably won the marketshare for the instant photography category but I'm possibly edging on the a-little-too-old-to-be-snapchatting side.(Don't even get me started on their dig at snapchat with their direct/dissapearing messaging system).
All they need is to upgrade their filter selection to a genuinely more simple range, much like VSCO's available sets. They're clean, genuine, and straight to the point.
Better yet, let users save their own presets so they can quickly go back to filters that they like. That'll save us all some time and have less work in our photographic workflow.
All that being said, I ain't mad Instagram. You're still my favourite photography app!