Instagram is finally available on the desktop as an application. The app is now available on the Windows Store for download and installation on PCs as well as tablets running Windows 10.
The app has been available on Windows 10 mobile since April.
The app, however, is still not available on other devices on the Windows 10 platform like XBox and mixed reality hardware Hololens which is now available in 6 more countries.
On PCs, from my quick interaction with the app, most of the basic features of the mobile app are already available. Users can send Instagram Direct messages, watch Instagram Stories from their friends (finally you don’t need a Chrome extension for this).
The app crashed when I tried to create an Instagram story. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I am not able to capture or upload photos from my computer. The only thing I can do is edit already posted images. At least that’s the case for me (The Verge‘s Tom Warren is able to do this so I guess this is just the case for those of us with old machines). The feature should be universally available to those using Windows 10 tablets, though.
Video capture and sharing is also not available.
It wouldn’t be a nice Windows 10 app if it didn’t have a Live Tile so it has one for pinning on the start menu. Like other Windows 10 apps, Instagram notifications will also show up in the Action Centre.
