Facebook debuts an iOS camera app with filters

Before completely folding in Instagram, Facebook releases a camera app for users

Facebook photo fiends will have to check out the new method to uploading pics to Facebook: the Facebook Camera app for iOS.

This brand-spankingly-new iPhone app allows user to shoot, filter, and share single or sets of photos right from their phone. Looks like this is could have spurred the Instagram buy.

With 14 filters different filter it sure seems like Facebook wanted an Instagram feel even before it folded the young photo-sharing startup into its team.

The Facebook Camera also lets you tag friends and locations, add a description, and post quickly within the app. 

Currently the free app is just available in English-speaking countries via the Apple App Store.

The fact that the app allows multi-photo uploads is a great perk, since one of the biggest bottlenecks in mobile photo use is the single post at a time limit. 

And the new filters include some very intuitive names such as cool, light, and copper, rather than Instagram’s elusive filter titles: Hudson, Earlybird and Sutro. 

With more than 500 million mobile users, Facebook could really corner the photo-sharing and filtering service as long as it get people to download and use the new app.  

The real question will be just how many Facebook-realted apps users will download and Facebook will expect people to use. The social networking company already has is native app and a messaging app.

It will, however, be interesting to see just what changes will come with the Instagram incorporation and collaboration.

In April, Instagram unique visitors shot up 78% to 14.5 million, from 8.2 million unique visitors in March, making it the fastest-growing Web property, according to a comScore report released Thursday.

Instagram is now ranked No. 106 overall in unique visitors. Last month it was the ninth fastest growing and was ranked nearly 100 sites lower at 204.

From February to March, Instagram went from 6.9 million to 8.2 million total unique visitors, an increase of 19%.

After launching its Android applast month, the photo sharing app saw its user numbers jump by 10 million in 10 days, pushing it over the 40 million user mark.

Instagram launched in September 2010, reaching one million users in two months. By December 2011, it had 15 million users, a number that was then nearly doubled by March of this year.

What more could Facebook/Instagram offer to mobile photo-sharing?

*The article was updated to include the latest comScore results, released May 24*