New Panols app lets you share panoramic shots on Instagram

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Panols makes Instagram a place where panoramic pictures can stretch.
Panols makes Instagram a place where panoramic pictures can stretch.
Photo: Panols

Instagram got the hint from users that they had grown tired of just squares and now allows mobile photographers to present horizontal or vertical pictures. But it’s still not a platform for sharing panoramic images.

A developer and frequent traveler, who grew tired of crops to his majestic captures, has created an app to bring sweeping panos to Instagram.

Panols
Two samples of Panols pictures for Instagram.
Photo: Panols

Juan Arreguin created Panols, an app that splits those extra wide shots into three separate panels so that panoramic photos can be displayed in Instagrams’ three-across grid view.

Instead of one slender horizontal, the picture becomes three squares, but followers will at least get the end-to-end feel of a gorgeous landscape photo.

Panols
Panols creates a copy of the original panoramic shot for editing.
Photo: Panols

Panols hit the App Store earlier this month and already has received several five-star reviews from users and was singled out by Apple in the “New Apps We Love” page. It costs $1.99.

“While traveling and freelancing, I’ve always taken photos that were with my iPhone using the Panorama feature on my camera but was never able to post them anywhere, until I decided to split them up and post them across on my Instagram account,” Arrequin said on a public forum in Product Hunt. “That’s how Panols was born.”

The app accesses your Photo Library and edits a copy of the original panoramic image. A user can quickly split any pano into a triptych and edit metadata for names, descriptions, and geolocation.

The shot can then be shared on Instagram in a three-across grid. The Panols images get stored along with the original shot in a separate album on your camera roll.

Panols can be downloaded for use on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch with iOS 9.2 or later. An Android version is in the works.

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