We might like to all pretend our Instagram feeds are simple and spontaneous, but we know most feeds are highly curated collections of photos that we spend hours editing, writing captions for and planning the layout of our feed. The app VSCO cam used to be the go to program for previewing and planning your Instagram feed and editing and publishing your photos. With its new update VSCO cam has lost all the features that made it so popular and I’ve seen so many posts and tweets by people wondering how can they plan their Instagram feed now. Well do not fear, there are several brilliant apps that will replace and in some cases improve on your beloved VSCO Cam from the Instagram planning point of view. So here are 4 of the best Instagram Planning Apps

PLANOLY

PRICE – FREE FOR TRIAL THEN £6.99+ PER MONTH AFTER
PULLS FROM FEED – YES
SCHEDULE/REMINDER  – YES
EDIT – NO
REARRANGE – YES
POST TO INSTAGRAM – YES
EXTRAS – ANALYTICS AND COMMENTS

Planoly is a beautiful app. I found out about it through Emma who is a huge fan. It can pull photos from your live Instagram feed and the layout grid to preview Instagram is just lovely to look at, easily showing you which pictures are published. You can rearrange pictures by dragging and dropping,  calendar and schedule options are easy to use as well as instant posting to Instagram itself. Pictures can be uploaded from all albums on your phone including the all important favourites folder. The design is clean and smart and so user friendly. It has an incredible amount of features including analytics and an easy to view comments section, however all these features do come at a price. The app requires a monthly subscription fee after the free trial. Plans start at £6.99 per month for a SOLO account. Plans for multiple Instagram accounts start at £13.99. I currently am using the SOLO Plan.

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UNUM

PRICE – FREE
PULLS FROM FEED – YES
SCHEDULE/REMINDER – YES
EDIT – YES
REARRANGE – YES
POST TO INSTAGRAM – YES
EXTRAS – SAVE CAPTIONS

UNUM is a simple to use Instagram preview app. Its free to download and has the ability to pull your photos from your live Instagram feed, rearrange pictures by dragging and dropping, schedule options gives you reminders to post as well as posting to Instagram itself. It has a clean layout and has options for light or dark background.
Unfortunately when adding photos the app doesn’t seem to be able to find the favourites folder which is where I keep most of my Instagram specific photos, but I have been told the update this week has solved this problem. I also don’t personally like the grid layout in the app which has white borders and isn’t what my feed looks like on Instagram, but again this weeks update will remove this border so that will be a big improvement for me . I do like the save captions option which allows you to click on several images and caption all with regularly used hashtags or captions. It also has options for editing like VSCO Cam did with the ability to crop, whiten and and add filers. Find this by clicking the diamond shape on the bottom toolbar.

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MOSAICO

PRICE – £4.29
PULLS FROM FEED – YES
SCHEDULE/REMINDER – YES
EDIT – NO
REARRANGE – YES
POST TO INSTAGRAM – YES
EXTRAS – GHOST MODE AND TAG OPTIONS

I really like Mosaico. Although its a buy app, once bought that’s it. It has a lovely simple interface and the grid layout is gorgeous. It pulls from Instagram and has the usual drag and drop options but it also has a nice layout for adding captions in a list format. I also really like the Ghost mode,which is activated by pulling the feed down. This allows you to delete a picture from your feed and see what it might look like without affecting your live feed. You can also preset publish times (up to four) and the app will remind you at these times. Plus it has a tag cloud option that keeps bundles of your most used tags under a category name of your choice. I think this will be the Preview Instagram App I use the most.

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SNUG

PRICE – £0.99
PULLS FROM FEED – YES
SCHEDULE/REMINDER – NO
EDIT – YES CAN CROP
REARRANGE – YES
POST TO INSTAGRAM – YES
EXTRAS – SHOWS INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS ETC AT TOP

Snug is a good app for anyone looking for a simple Instagram planning tool. It pulls from your feed, has rearrange options and publish to Instagram too. The app doesn’t have any scheduling or reminder tools and I have to admit I personally don’t like the green layout of the grid compared to some of the other cleaner layouts. Simple to use though and does access all the photo albums on your phone. A good little buy.

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I have downloaded all the apps and used them and my personal favourite is PLANOLY.  Its incredibly beautiful has some seriously kick ass features. However this app has a subscription charge which is a commitment financially so won’t be for everyone.  For a cheaper option there’s Mosaico to plan your Instagram feed instead. I like the ease of use and the layout of this one.

After this weeks updates I think UNUM will be a contender for the best app too, I’ll be interested to see how this and future updates improve the app.

So that’s my pick of the best Instagram Planning Apps. Let me know if you have tried any of these apps and which your favourite is?

Debs

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