TECH: Instagram Coming To Windows Phone Crippled Without Many Features

First announced last month at Nokia’s Lumia event, Instagram for Windows Phone is finally here. You can download it from the Windows Phone app starting at 11AM PT on Wednesday.

It’s been a long time coming, and Windows Phone photographers will no doubt be overjoyed they no longer have to rely on third-party apps to get their selfie fix. Unfortunately, this version seems more like Instagram-lite. You can’t use the app itself to take pictures, you can’t tag people in photos, and you can’t upload video. It also only works with Windows Phone 8, so Windows Phone 7 users are out of luck. I’m curious as to why the app is being released in this stage of seemingly half-completion.

While iOS and Android are each home to over one million apps, Microsoft’s most recent number for Windows Phone pit it around the 170,000 mark. I’m not sure if the arrival big-name Instagram in this crippled form is a step forward or backward.

Instagram says the release is a beta, and that more features are to come soon, so at least there’s some hope on the horizon. But for now, this is a little bittersweet for Windows Phone users.

-GigaOm