Instagram to Unveil Hipstamatic Partnership Today

Instagram, the photo-sharing iPhone app, has allowed users to export their Instagram photos to other social networking sites from the start. Until now, however, users weren't able to import photos to Instagram. Thanks to a new partnership with Hipstamatic, all that has changed. The two iPhone photo apps are pairing up to allow photos taken on either app to easily upload to Instagram's network.

Both Instagram and Hipstamatic seek to marry the romance of old-fashioned photography with the iPhone camera. Instagram enables users to snap a photo on their iPhone and to transform the look and feel of it with their choice of filter. The edited photo may then be uploaded to the Instagram site, as well as to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, all for free. Last week, Instagram reached 27 million users, making it one of the most popular photo-sharing services, as well as one of the fastest-growing social networks. In a similar vein, Hipstamatic allows users to choose the lens, flash, and film they want to use to take their photo, creating an old-fashioned image. The initial app costs $1.99 in Apple's app store, and additional lenses and films are available for in-app purchase.

"When we launched, it was all about Facebook and Flickr and Twitter, and now we're seeing a huge shift in our user base toward Instagram," Hipstamatic co-founder and CEO, Lucas Buick, told Fast Company. "We've never been a social networking company, but we clearly benefit from social networks. So this will be the first app outside of Instagram that lets you into their network. That's pretty cool for us."

Each Hipstamatic photo pushed into Instagram will be tagged with an attribution to Hipstamatic.

"It's a step in the direction that we're testing out," says Instagram CEO and cofounder Kevin Systrom. "We've been very careful about making sure that Instagram photos are about what's happening right now in your life, and we want to allow for more of those photos to end up on Instagram regardless of where they're taken."

The partnership is set to be unveiled today, so get to snapping photos happy hipsters.

[via Fast Company]