Instagram app appears for Windows Phone, but you can’t have it (because it’s not real)

April fools. We’re writing this story for one reason: to get all of our awesome loyal fans to stop tipping us on Instagram becoming available for Windows Phone. News flash: it’s not.

The app in question went live in the Store on March 31st in beta form and cannot be downloaded by the public. In the app description, all of the features of the hipster photo app are given along with mentions of Windows Phone 8 support and a “Modern User Interface by Sarper Erel”, who happened to have made an Instagram “concept” for Windows Phone 7 back one year ago in 2012.

That's just where some of the weirdness begins...

Fake Instagram

There’s also of course the last bullet point in the app description that a few have glossed over: “And Happy April 1st 2013!.". Ahem.

Let us just clear a few things up: if Instagram was about to come out, we’d surely know about it. Trust us. This is not it, even though the company name, Burbn Inc. is the right one for Instagram.

So how did this happen? Simple, anyone with a developer account can make a private beta on the Windows Phone Store and have the app say whatever they want to say.Throw in some screenshots designed by someone else as a "project" from one year ago and hey-ho, you have a fake listing that looks almost real. Almost.

Fake Instagram

Let’s look at a few other oddities here, just to be safe:

  • It’s April first
  • The app description makes mention of April 1st
  • The app was published on March 31st
  • It’s conveniently a private beta, meaning no one can test it
  • The app design is based off of a 2012 concept that was a made “in a day”
  • IT IS APRIL FIRST

Do we need to go on? Sorry folks, no Instagram. at least not today. Indeed, we have a feeling we’ll be fighting off quite a few rumors and “news” today, so just have fun and take it all with a grain of salt.

Oh and if you want to see the app yourself in the Store, knock yourself out.

QR: Fake Instagram

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.