Point, click, Facebook: Social networking giant debuts its own camera app

Just six weeks ago Facebook, the world's largest social networking site, announced its planned purchase one of the best-known smartphone camera apps, Instagram. Today, Facebook makes an interesting move with the debut of its own camera app designed specifically for members of its site.

Rather logically dubbed Facebook Camera, the new app doesn't yet include technology from Instagram; the two companies are still separate at this point. That's in part because Facebook's takeover of the comparitively tiny--if very popular--app maker is currently in a holding pattern, pending an FTC investigation into the purchase and whether the deal would harm competition. With today's release, Facebook Camera instead brings to fruition a lengthy in-house development effort at Facebook to create its own rival to the very app it now plans to buy.

Posting photos to Facebook with the new Facebook Camera app. Screenshot provided by Facebook / iTunes.

The new app's debut is particularly interesting as it confirms that in-house development wasn't shelved once the ball was rolling on the Instagram purchase. This is perhaps a sign of just how sudden Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's decision was to purchase Instagram, something apparently provoked by an earlier bid from social networking rival Twitter. Development of the in-house app must have been very far advanced when the Instagram deal was tabled, for the final app to have been released such a short time later. It could perhaps also be taken to suggest that Facebook isn't entirely confident that the purchase will be able to proceed, and wants to have its own alternative ready just in case.

Applying filters in the Facebook Camera app. Screenshot provided by Facebook / iTunes.

Facebook Camera appears quite similar to Instagram overall, although it does have some notable differences. Key among these is that it doesn't limit users to a particular aspect ratio, where Instagram forces a square aspect ratio and a reduced resolution on its users. It also lacks the selectable frames of its well-established rival, but adds the ability to crop in-app, where Instagram requires a visit to the camera roll to achieve this.

Like Instagram, Facebook Camera provides a selection of in-app filter effects that provide fun creative possibilities, and the app is being provided free of charge. It's only available for a selection of iOS 4.0+ devices at the current time, although an Android version is in development and was briefly available on that platform last month.

Selecting existing photos to upload to Facebook. Screenshot provided by Facebook / iTunes.