The guys at Instagram has recently announced that the mobile photo-sharing app's latest update includes three new photographic filters - Lark, Reyes and Juno - topped with emoji hashtag support
Instagram saw how users appreciated the addition of five filters in its the creative tools update in December last year and decided to add three more. According to the mobile photo-sharing app's official blog post, Lark, Reyes and Juno are "a family of modern, subtle filters."
Users can bring life to their landscape photos with more blues and greens using the Lark filter. Meanwhile, Juno gives vibrant photos of people as it "tints cool tones green while making warm tones pop and whites glow." Finally, the Reyes filter easily gives that dusty, vintage look for any captured moments.
The new filters brings a total of 27 filters for the said app. For those who think there's too many filters to choose from, they can simply arrange and choose which filters are displayed on the filter tray to avoid crowding by using the "manage" menu.
Instagram said the Ludwig and Crema are the "most popular filters overall" and were part of the filters that were added in last year's update. The company also plans to add other filters on a regular basis.
Filters in Instagrams follows the similar philosophy of traditional lens filters in cameras, giving users the option to alter certain aspects of an image without using a separate photo editing software.
Meanwhile, the use of emoji in hashtags is a bonus feature of the Instagram app update. The widely-used pictograph can now be used in hashtag posts and can be searched in the app's Explore tab.
"We use emoji to communicate emotions and feelings in ways that anyone can understand, regardless of language or background," Instagram stated in its official blog post.
Originally used in Japan, emojis went viral worldwide after Apple included it as its Apple Color emoji typeface in its iOS in 2011.
However, a few days after the update, the company has blocked the emoji eggplant from its search feature. According to CNN Money, a spokesperson from Instagram said the frequent use of the eggplant emoji in tagging "photos or videos that violate the social network's community standards" by many Instagrammers was the cause of the ban.
Users could still the emoji eggplant in hashtags.
Instagram is currently used by over 300 million active users worldwide as of December last year.
