My 6 MUST HAVE Instagram Apps
Charlene Lizette
Instagram has become a huge part of the foundation for my business. I find inspiration, recipes, work out ideas and so much more through my feed. Most importantly though I get to connect and build cool friendships with people all around the world like you guys. How AMAZING is that!?
I share my life with you guys on that app. I share somewhat curated photos through my feed. I share quotes I love or have put together. I’ve edited videos of adventures Charlie and I have taken and share them with you via IGTV and everyday you get little sneak peaks into what I’m up to through my Insta stories.
And since I can’t tell you how many DM’s I get a week asking me about how I created a video/photo or what app I used to get a certain look I figured I’d share my 6 fav Instagram apps and my review on them with you!
Here we go!
#1: LIGHTROOM MOBILE
Presets, presets, presets! Presets have fast become a must have for anyone looking to up their Insta game. You can buy them through various channels load them onto your phone and then the app and viola you got presets at your finger tips. I’ve recently created my own presets and plan on launching them when I get to 10K on Insta. I will tell you however I know a handful of content creators (I dislike the title influencer, I’ll be talking more about that in another blog) who don’t use presets and are still killing it with amazing feeds like The Pink Millennial.
BEFORE AND AFTER
Why I love it:
First off, I take a lot of photos using my iPhone. Even when I have access to a good camera the lighting isn’t always ideal and thats when Lightroom takes the spotlight and helps me convert otherwise dark, dull images into vibrant, aesthetically pleasing photos of really special moments in my life. I prefer Lightroom to other apps because of all the editing tools available in one application. Apart from the standard contrast, saturation, brightness options, Lightroom gives me the opportunity to zone in and edit particular colours, effects and details. My favourite thing about Lightroom is the Preset option. I started off by purchasing some presets and as I’ve become more proficient in Lightroom I created my own. This means I spend max 2 minutes editing a photo to upload on my feed. Which means I save time and time is money for this single mom my friends!
What annoys me:
I can’t say there is anything really annoying or bothersome about Lightroom Mobile. Its easy to use, don’t freeze and saves tons of my photos through their cloud.
Cost:
FREE – thats right! F-R-E-E! it doesn’t get better than that. You will have to pay for your own presets if you buy some online but otherwise the app costs ZERO dollars to download.
#2: UNUM
Tell me you have this app already. Because if you don’t and want to get serious about your footprint on Insta you need this app ASAP. Like go download now and then come back to read this. I’ll wait for you. I know it sounds shallow and sh*tty but its the truth. There are over 1 billion monthly active users on Instagram so if you wanna stand out from the crowd and get people to see your message you feed needs to be on point.
Why I love it:
UNUM is the bomb hot diggity in my opinion.There are tons of competing apps to UNUM and I’ve tried them all but I always come back to UNUM. Now a days on Insta you have to have visually enticing Instagram feeds to grab peoples attention. UNUM gives me the opportunity to upload up to 18 images for free onto a grid that looks exactly like Insta. I can easily move around my content decide what images look best beside each other and rearrange my images to help me curate my feed. I can easily delete photos that aren’t working move images around until I’m blue in the face. It also offers some editing tools so if I have an image that doesn’t quite match I can play around with brightness/exposure to see if I can get it to fit in.
What annoys me:
The obvious annoying part is i can only plan 18 photos ahead of time. The only other thing that annoys me is when I’m trying to decide dimensions for my photo if I use their editing tool and crop a photo, I can’t undo it. So if I screw up and crop too much, I have to end up deleting that photo and re-uploading it.
Cost:
FREE! thats right this is another app thats free. However it comes with a caveat. Its only free up to 18 squares. After those 18 squares you gotta pay for a membership. I’ll take 18 free squares please.
#3: CANVA
Hi, do you know me? Obviously Canva would be on this list because I love Canva. Not only can I use Canva for Instagram but I also create all my branded documents through Canva as well. Check out my Canva Invoice Tutorial when you get a minute.
What annoys me:
Sometimes when I’m editing certain images it gives me a hard time editing text or colors to how I want it to look. Its almost like it goes through small glitches. I even share an example in my invoice tutorial. I also don’t like that I can’t upload my own fonts (in my case my brand fonts aren’t available on Canva) unless I pay the membership.
Why I love it:
Because options, options, options. Canva offers so many creative tools to use to up your Insta game. From creating visually pleasing IGTV video covers, to creating Inspirational Quote posts, Canva offers it all. They also offer a ton of free fonts and design ideas for your Insta posts if you are going through a creative rut. Oh and there is a mobile app as well as a website so you can pick where you want to work from.
Cost:
FREE – for tons of features but to really experience everything Canva offers theres a monthly membership of $12.95 USD.
#4: UNFOLD
But do you actually know one person on Instagram who doesn’t use this app. Unfold helps you create these beautiful Insta stories that are design focused and curated.
Why I love it:
‘Cause its intuitive and yet gives me the space to creatively express myself in my style. I get to pick from specific templates that meet my style and aesthetic and I can create fun stories that are visually appealing and easy to follow along. I also love that I can use it for videos as well as photos. It gives me the opportunity to share special moments in a unique way. Without having to spend too much time creating them.
What annoys me:
Every additional feature costs money. For example the app comes with a handful of fonts and if you want to add more you gotta pay for a premium collection. The same goes with many of their template options.
Cost:
$$ you gotta pay to play with Unfold. I do like that you don’t have to buy all their packages. Save money by only purchasing packages you would use.
#5: SPARK CAMERA
I stumbled across Spark by accident during the summer of 2018 and after watching a youtube tutorial I was sold. It’s an app that allows you to quickly edit and put together videos for IGTV because its specifically built for vertical videos.
Why I love it:
I’m a huge fan of Final Cut Pro, but working on final cut pro takes time and I’m confined to my macbook. I fell for Spark because its user friendly. I can work from my iphone. In minutes I can put together a bunch of clips and photos and create a video to share on IGTV. I also love that it allows you to upload music to your video, just make sure that music isn’t protected my copyright laws because Spark has copyright protection built in.
What annoys me:
The app is built in a way where you upload clips and then edit clips to create a full video. Soooo when I have one clip that I want to edit I cant just use the one clip and delete the places I don’t want. I have to upload multiples of the same clip and then edit along. Truth be told, this app ideal if you have a ton of mini clips that you want to put together. If you have one long clip you wanna edit I’d steer clear of this app.
Cost:
$$ you gotta pay to play but I believe the app wasn’t to expensive coming in at around $8 bucks.
#6: RECORD IT
I came across this app not to long ago and I love it! I use it almost everyday via my Insta stories. It’s a great way to share content and get your following interested in something when you don’t have the swipe up option yet. Theres a few recording apps, this one is my fav, let me know if you prefer another so I can try it out.
Why I love it:
this app gives me the opportunity to record website pages, youtube pages, videos, walk throughs, whatever you can think of because not only does it screen record, but it can also screen record while recording audio at the same time. For people like me who haven’t hit 10k followers and don’t have the swipe up option on Insta Stories, this app gives me the opportunity to tease my community and show them snip it of a new blog post/youtube video etc. I then put the link in my main bio but because my friends ( you guys) get to watch what I’m talking about you can decide for yourself if you want to see more because I’ve already given up preview. I also really love that I can talk as I walk through the video because it avoids me having to record multiple stories (lets get real too many stories of the same thing gets boring) and I have the opportunity to share my message with you creatively and more efficiently.
What annoys me:
Sometimes the app glitches and even though I’ll have microphone record on it doesn’t record my voice so I have to redo the video or layer on my voice using the app again.
Cost:
FREE – yes theres ad’s before you can upload your video but who cares.
7. YOU'RE EXHAUSTED. DRAINED. TIRED. ALL. THE. TIME.
And those are my 6 favourite Instagram Apps! I use all of these either on a daily or weekly basis and I find they help me a ton in creating unique videos/images for you guys.
Let me know if you currently use any of these right now in the comments below. I’d love to hear your feedback.
I tried sharing my favourite free apps cause trust me I know, spending money on apps can be a drag and we all have different financial priorities.
Till next time.
Chao pescado!
xo C.
