Instagram updated with Nexus 7 support, Flickr sharing
If you're among the lucky few to already be in possession of a Google Nexus 7, then you'll be pleased to see hear that the Instagram app for Android has been updated to support your new tablet. The latest version 1.1.7 of Instagram …
Context & Ripple Effects
Instagram's Android push has been a sprint since spring: registration opened in March ahead of launch, the app arrived with 27 million registered users already on the books, and by April the team was shipping device-specific builds like support for the HTC One X and other Tegra 3 phones. Version 1.1.7 continues that cadence, extending the same treatment to Google's new Nexus 7 tablet just days after its release.
The Flickr sharing toggle is the more strategically interesting half of the update: Instagram photos have largely stayed inside Instagram's own feed, and this opens a direct pipe to Yahoo's service at the same time Flickr is investing in new Groups features of its own.
First-order effects
- Nexus 7 early adopters get a properly formatted Instagram experience rather than a stretched phone layout, removing the main friction for using the app on Android's first credible small tablet.
- Users can now push shots straight to Flickr from the Android app, making Instagram a capture-and-distribute layer rather than a closed network.
Second-order effects
- Flickr gains an inbound mobile content stream without building its own Android camera app to compete, which pairs with its May Groups revamp as it tries to stay relevant as a destination rather than just an archive.
- The device-by-device update pattern — One X in April, Nexus 7 in July — shows Instagram absorbing Android's fragmentation cost itself, a maintenance burden that grows with every new screen size Google ships.
Third-order effects
- If photo apps keep adding outbound sharing to rival networks while remaining capture-first, the moat shifts from where photos are stored to who owns the moment of creation — the dynamic already credited, though unconfirmed, with displacing early rival PicPlz.
- Per-device optimization cycles like this one foreshadow the pressure on small Android teams as tablets multiply form factors faster than universal layouts mature.
The trend: Android photography apps are racing to cover every new flagship device and tablet while evolving from walled networks into multi-network publishing hubs.