6tag, the first Instagram client for Windows Phone with video upload support and more, is now available

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

Tonight, Rudy Huyn’s long awaited Instagram client 6tag has gone live in the Windows Phone Store. The app, which was recently renamed from 6tagram due to copyright issues, is the first 100% API compliant Instagram app for Windows Phone 8 devices (Windows Phone 7.x support is expected later).

The app is a free download with in-app purchases to remove ads ($1.29) and to enable optional video uploads ($1.49), though users get one-free upload to test the experience. The app, loosely based off of Huyn’s other work, 6Sec (for Vine), features the same easy to use design along with every feature that Instagram offers, plus more.

Features of 6tag for Windows Phone 8

  • 100% original filters: XPro-II, Earlybird, Rise, Amaro, Hudson, Lo-fi, Sutro, Toaster, Brannan, Inkwell, Walden, Hefe, Nashville, 1977, and others.
  • Video recording with cut scenes
  • Linear and Radial Tilt-Shift blur effects for extra depth of field.
  • Instant sharing to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr and Foursquare, VK
  • Unlimited picture uploads
  • geotag your posts
  • Interact with friends through giving & receiving likes and comments
  • Front & Back camera support
  • And much much more...

In addition, the app has a Live Tile with counter for notifications and Lens support to quickly snap and upload an image to the Instagram network.

The app is not official or endorsed by Instagram though they did clear the name and any potential copyright issues beforehand, ensuring that the app won’t be removed for any future claims. The app uses a reversed engineered API to access the Instagram network, though Instagram is evidently looking the other way on this matter despite it technically violating their terms of service.

Head to the Store to download 6tag now for your Windows Phone 8 device (including 512MB phones). Free (with optional in-app purchases). Thanks, everyone, for the tips!

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Executive Editor

Daniel Rubino is the Executive Editor of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft here since 2007, back when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and arguing with people on the internet.

371 Comments
  • Fucking awesome!
  • +920!!! I bought buy just to support the amazing work and effort put into this! Anyone know where to see popular at?
  • tap on "search" and the popular pics will appear under the search bar. This is the only feauture i miss switching from instance.
  • Its done this way because that is how it is done in the official apps from iOS and Android... (^_-)-☆
  • same here :) I removed ads almost right away.
  • Sweet. Find me @aaa_6112. See you there!
  • I'm called abraanddabra on Instagram,  come and say hi :)
  • Silverblade_x! Haha
  • @dgcsg
  • just added you.
     
     
  • Yes sir
  • Hey Rudy, have you heard from anyone from Microsoft or Nokia? Because you're on everyone's radar right now.
  • FASTPUBLISH: 6tag leaks your account data, stores your private videos
     
  • Just downloaded it! 
  • I get a not available for your device message.
  • Wait for the store to refresh itself. It may be lagging.
  • This is awesome.  This is the reason why I checked the site before bed!  I had a feeling....
  • On the other side of the globe it's the nice morning news for me :) Downloading
  • Paying $1.50 for no adds totally worth it!
    But in the other hand I'm considering to get the Video playback and video :P
  • Its USD 1.29 to remove ads
  • Got it! You totally rock Rudy!! Nice app.
  • Well I don't have adds at the end :P
  • *ads
  • I'm new to instagram, but I'll download it and give it a go.
  • Is it free, cos I wasn't asked to buy?
  • Free, you can pay to remove ads or have video uploads. :)
  • Thanks. I don't mind the ads and being unable to upload vids at all :P
  • Sorry if this is a silly question, but where do I go to make the payments to enable videos and remove ads?
    EDIT: Nevermind! Figured it out after searching around for a while!
  • You just click on the ads.
  • Got it! I'm testing it now. I've already paid to remove the ads and and about to do it for unlimited video upload. :)
  • What country? It is not yet available for me! -US
  • The Dominican Republic.
  • Maldito loco el diablo lol
  • hahahahaha pero como se le safa a ustedes el dominicano. 
    Habrá que abrir un foro para los dominicanos aquí en WP central. 
  • Pero señores.... ustedes saben que desde que se juntan par de Dominicanos donde sea (aunque sea virtual) se arma la chercha!!!
  • Ya lo sabe, loco. jajajajaja
  • jajjajajajaja yeeeah lml
  • I'm not seeing any ads here. Where are they?
  • I found them when going through hash tags, but that is all.
  • I found them in activity and clicking on one of the photos somebody liked.
  • How do you pay to remove adds and upload videos?
  • For ads, you have to wait till they appear, they will show an "X" to remove them. For videos, its after you've exceeded the 1 upload limit.
  • Thanks! Gotta support our people. Even though the ads didn't even bother me
  • Already paid here in Peru :P
    to remove adds, only hit the "x" in the edge of an add.
  • *ads
  • Question... Do you know or anyone for that matter, how do I tag people??  I see the "tag" thingy, but I can't put any names..... I'm a little confused.
  • Yay! Just downloaded. Amazing!
  • Hey Dan! You're in the screenshot on the store!
  • :)
  • It'll be interesting to see if this app is enough to quell the whiners. Also, it'll be nice to see the Lumia 1020 just smash everyone else's photos! :)
  • Instagram lowers the photo resolution though :(
  • Does anyone know the final resolution of an Instagram picture? I mean, if I upload a 2000*2000 photo, it gets resized to...?
  • 612x612
  • Woohoo I'm finally going to open an account.
  •   Its the first app that offer full instagram experience, only video filters are missing but they will be added in future patch. Also Rudy promised that in next weeks we will have a 7.8 version as well. Great news for wp users and windows phone.  Still Microsoft and Windows Phone STILL need official Instagram app for publicity reasons, (also it will be completely free) even if Rudy's app is better. We all need to support 6tag. 
  • As much as I like this one, the first app to give full instagram experience was Instance. Yes, it doesn't have video, but neither did Instagram when Instance was released.
  • Its not full instagram experience without the official filters! Instance filters is still its weak point. Also instance had many other issues like tags etc. 
  • I'm really excited for Instance V2. From the screenshots and bits of info I've seen, it looks to be quite the competitor for 6tag
  • It's so...beautiful..
  • Yeah M$ is doing it big. Maybe Nokia may not go bankrupt after all
  • What?
  • MS did not do anything. Nokia will not go bankrupt. This work is by sir Rudy Huyn :)
  • This is great news that it's finally out! Now just waiting for Rudy to support WP7.8 devices.
  • Me too! Waiting for the WP7 version of 6sec as well.
  • Wp7 :( :( :(
  • The developer said there'll be a wp7 version!
  • Hopefully it does. Instance was abandoned for wp7
  • It wasn't...
    Daniel is just busy with V2.
  • Read your articles and forums....
  • Am I the only one having issue downloading. When I click from app it says not available yet. When I go to store I can hit install but from there it gives me an error code. -Lumia 925, US
  • I was able to download it on my 925, US
  • try changing the date on the phone to 08/22/13
  • So, for those of us beta testing this app, should we download 6tag now or will the beta still be accessible?
  • I was wondering too....he most likely will update it like he updated 6sec once beta was over...
  • Beta ends in a few hours if it's still working for you. Ends 22nd.
  • Nope. The Beta App has expired. it will show a prompt when you try to open it!
  • Yea I just tried same for me, there goes our answer lol
  • Beta still working for me! Still not midnight here.
  • Yep, just downloaded 6tag because the beta stopped working.  Great app.  I noticed the live tile is slightly different on the full release than on the beta.  The logo is smaller and centered whereas for the beta the logo took up the whole tile (on small tiles)
  • I like the first screen.. Video in the background..
  • Good work Rudy, this is a great app!
  • I think Rudy is sleeping right now... He deservers this!!!! Tomorrow will be a great day for him!!
    Once again, congrats man!!! 6tag is probably the best made for WP....
  • Thanks Rudy!
  • Can I get a Hell Ya!!?
  • Woop!
  • So smooth very nice app. He should also create 6Book/facebook and 6Tube/youtube, very talented man.
  • Hahaha those names sound like porn sites.
  • I'm not sure about Facebook, but I would kill to have a YouTube app from Rudy, seeing as I'm a YouTuber.
  • YAAAAY! So glad this has been released, now to give Rudy some money. :D
  • Long live Rudy! You're the man!
  • I love it.
  • Thanks Rudy!
  • Outstanding! Me happy!
  • Thank you Rudy!!!
  • I heard all hell breaking lose, so I checked the WPC app. Sure enough, 6tag is available.
  • Man, Rudy Hyun is my hero.
  • Installed and bought twice. Thank you Rudy.
  • Its epic so far.
  • Goodbye Instance!! PS: You guys are right though! It was a door to open a Instagram path, I used it a lot. If it does have a Video support in the future, I would be looking forward to return back to it!
  • To be fair though, Instance is really good, yes it doesn't do videos , but still good . I have posted over 500 pictures using Instance .
    Thanks Daniel
  • +1
  • I bought instance to remove ads. Please update it. :) Make it more functional and I'd be happy.
  • Instance was good, that's why I bought it... but its clear that D. Gary doesn't have the time to keep it updated. Still grateful, his was the best by far before today.
  • Yeah, I liked that one too (and bought it). It was definitely a great step towards getting into the Instagram door.
  • He very much does have the time, and he's working on a huge V2 update right now! :)
  • Thanks for setting the record straight Jay!
  • Instance was released a while ago, crashes daily and has not been upated even though it's extremely unstable. Yes I know Daniel Gary is super busy, yes I know V2 is coming (very soon, for a while now), but I find it interesting that it took Rudy a month to create an app from scratch with more features, beta test it and release it, while at the same time releasing 2-3 updateds for 6sec app.
    They are all very busy, this is not their full time job and they have lives, but if you charge money for the app (I know it wasn't much) there is a certain commitment to supporting it regulary.
    I appreciate what Daniel Gary did and Instance was a great start, but it would have been nice if he put in the time earlier on and not when Rudy started talking about 6tag.
  • You sound like a petulant child. Instance was what?...A $1.50? 
    Also, it crashed maybe twice in my experience. Maybe it's your phone's fault.
  • Actually, you response makes you sound like a child. I mentioned that the price is not a big deal. Do the research and you'll know that it's not the phone's fault and I'm not the only one having issues, there are a lot of users with the same issues. 
  • I wish Rudy could make EVERY SINGLE APP ON THE STORE.
  • He would if people at Microsoft or Nokia were smart enough to hire him full-time to do that. He does in 2 weeks what an entire team at Microsoft can't do in two months.
  • To be fair though, Microsoft has an Instagram client built. Instagram just won't sign off on it. 
  • Lets hope that this Instagram made by MS be not so bad like the FB made by MS...
  • Pfff... Facebook is pretty good and updated frequently. It will be as good as possible soon enough.
  • Sorry, I was talking about the old FB app...
  • MS is pretty good at making apps. Halo, Fresh Paint, YouTube, Bing apps, etc. It's the FB service causing issues (notification issues specifically) with the FB app.
  • If the Instagram MS built is the one Nokia has for months, then Rudy's is still better...which brings me back to my point: they should hire him :P
  • Have you seen it? Why do you say this?
  • How can a lonely developer convince Instagram to give blessings to his app whereas mighty Microsoft with all its money fails to get their apps the same nod? Either Rudy is too charming or Microsoft's Instagram design sucks compared to this app.
  • Maybe Instagram has an axe to grind with Microsoft, not with Rudy? Maybe Instagram CEO hates Microsoft, they don't have anything to hate Rudy?
  • I wouldn't want that to occur. Yes, it would be awesome to have Rudy as a full-time developer, but as his own man he can code whatever the heck he wants. If he actually worked for MS/Nokia, things like 6tag couldn't happen for legal reasons. ;)
  • Plus his throughput would be slower. Longer pipelines in large corporations
  • thank u
  • Got it!!!
  • Download first, read later.
  • +1
  • Its packed with features everything transitions smoothly. Great I love it!
  • Just installed it and it's outstanding. I'm wondering though, if the problem with photos from third-party apps not showing up in tag searches still persists...
  • Not with 6tag, its been discussed. This app should work fine for everything instagram.
  • Not sure how the official app works, but I find it a little stupid when I apply an effect for the photo then go to border and each border has its own filter.
  • yes, as I recall that's how it works officially
  • Then I'd rather use it just for uploading. Lol.
  • Thanks Rudy ! You are the man .
  • I have the beta, do I need to download this version?
  • Ditto question, might just keep the beta.
  • Just tries to go into the app and got an end of beta message. So you can't keep the beta. Glad to pay Rudy for his work!
  • How did you guys pay to get rid of ads and have video uploads?
    So I have to pay $3.39 to have full access?
  • You don't have to remove the adds (I admit, I think 1.29€ to remove adds is excessive), but if you want video upload, then yes, you need to pay 1.50€ because you'll be using Rudy's own servers as he doesn't have access to the Instagram ones directly.
  • Thank you
  • Thank you
  • To be fair, the 1.29 to remove ads, also helps the funding of his servers. He's not making huge profit margins or anything like that. :)
  • Not complaining at all, I was just confused.
    Thanks.
  • I know that. But I think 0.99€ to remove the adds would actually be more profitable and more people would actually remove them. At 1,29€, many will say "bah, just let the adds be" and not remove them. It's not an enormous difference in price, but psychologically it would work better.
  • Ads seem to pop up everywhere except the feed page. Just wait for an ad and click the 'x' in the upper right corner, you'll be taken to the buy page.
  • Thanks
  • Anyone having trouble signing in or resetting the password in app
  • yes... cannot sign in here either ! app resets my password every time even though my login is correct :-(
  • Well I figured out that during all of that API business with Instagram I reset my password. So it was a user error lol. Hope it all worked out for you. The app is great!
  • Great looking app, but still major props to Instance dev for starting this race.
  • Instance v2 is coming out really soon. We went from having no Instagram clients 6 months ago on Windows Phone, to having two of the best ways to experience it. 
  • I kind of hope that instance (or whatever he has to change the name to) sucks... because I have paid for both of them & will have to decide between the two.
  • I disagree, your support for Instance helped bring it to Instagram's attention, I hope both get awesome and you get your money's worth.
  • When wp7 version comes out
  • Pro