If we got wildly excited about a great new app that apes toy cameras, effortlessly allows you to add filters to amusingly retro square pics, and lets you upload the lot to a photography-oriented social network, you might say: “Um, you do realise Instagram came out two years ago, right?” But the app we’re talking about isn’t Instagram, although it is, in effect, pretty much Instagram.
Quality over quantity
Confused? So were we, but Starmatic’s creators are bullish about their product, arguing it’s Vimeo to Instagram’s YouTube, pushing quality over quantity.
That’s all very well, but in an App Store environment packed to the rafters with wannabes and also-rans, products have to stand out, and we’re not sure Starmatic makes the grade.
To be fair, the app does what you’d expect and does it well: you take a shot, apply a filter and upload; subsequently, you share your work or rummage around other people’s photos of lunches, pets and overly saturated sunsets.
Minor victories
In a couple of areas, Starmatic even beats its dominant rival: you can fiddle about with the app before signing up, there’s a grid overlay when taking photos, and the streamlined interface provides plenty of space for photographs.
But the network is currently smaller than its rival’s, the filters are objectively no better (with half only accessible via a 69p/$0.99 IAP), the link to Eastman Kodak’s classic camera that inspired the app is tenuous. Even some Instagram-style immediacy is gone, with there being no live filters - they’re applied only after you’ve taken a snap.
Starmatic is by no means bad, and as an initially free download it’s worth a punt for anyone who just can’t get enough toy camera apps installed on to their device or who’s freaked out by Facebook now owning Instagram.
However, for the most part, it’s hard to see the point.
Words: Craig Grannell
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Key info
- Price: Free with IAP
- Universal: No
- Version: 1.0.0
- App size: 9.2MB
- Developer: Starmatic S.A.
- Age rating: 12+
