Instagram 3.0 is out: geotagged Photo Maps, UI tweaks, snappiness

Following up on June’s big update, Instagram today pushed out a major new version to its mobile app for iOS and Android, bringing with it a bunch of changes, visual tweaks and interesting new features. The app’s explore tab and the photo upload screen have been re-worked with cleaner layout, the experience feels much snappier and you can now browse geotagged images in an all-new Photo Maps view…

In addition to redesigned profile and upload screens, Instagram 3.0 now features infinite scrolling on photo feeds and lets you easily report inappropriate comments as spam.

For example, swiping right over a comment and hitting the “Delete & Report Abuse” button will remove the comment and report it in one fell swoop.

Reporting a user is also a simple affair of hitting the button at the top right corner of their profile page and tapping the “Report for Spam” button.

To report a photo, just tap the “…” button below the photo and then “Report Inappropriate”.

You cannot report comments on other people’s photos, but this feature is being worked on and wil be available in a future release.

Bigger grid photos is now applied throughout the photo viewer, on user profiles, in the Explore tab and on hashtag and location pages.

You can now write and edit longer captions for your photos and the app will automatically load more photos when you scroll to the bottom (you’d previously have to tap a “load more” button).

The biggest new feature is the new Photo Maps view, seen below.

It’s pretty straightforward: just hit the “Add to Your Photo Map” button on an individual photo to enable others to look for it it on a world map. What this feature does is it retrieves your current geographical location and applies it to the photo.

Don’t worry, the app will prompt you before your Photo Map goes public and you’ll have a chance to review any previously geotagged photos.

You can also set a photo location by typing in a specific place name, such as “Paris”, “Grand Central Station” and so forth. Grid and Chronological view modes are available when viewing photos on a map.

Last, but not the least, the app lets you delete any geotagged photo from your own stack, which will remove any associated geodata but leave the photos intact on your profile.

Here’s a video walkthrough of the new Photo Maps feature.

To learn more about Photo Maps privacy and other settings, check out this FAQ.

More information about Instagram 3.0 is available in a post over at the official Instagram blog.

Instagram counts more than 80 million active users, prompting Facebook to acquire the company back in April for a staggering $1 billion, netting its founders more than $78 million.

Hot on the heels of the Facebook deal, Instagram released an Android client, prompting Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller to stop using it because it “jumped the shark” when it went to Android as he put it.

Are you still an Instagram user and will you be using the Photo Maps feature?