Instagram is prepping an Android version of its photo app, the company's CEO said during a Sunday panel at SXSW.
Instagram for Android is coming soon and "in some ways, it's better than our iOS app. It's crazy," Kevin Systrom told TechCrunch editor Alexia Tsotsis, who interviewed him for today's panel.
Systrom also revealed that Instagram has surpassed 27 million users; last May, it was at 4.5 million.
He didn't give a timetable for the release of the Android app. Today's SXSW appearance also did not include a demo of the app since it's apparently not quite ready for primetime, TechCrunch said. The delay, meanwhile, was simply due to the fact that the company was focusing much of its attention on iOS.
That focus likely helped it become Apple's iPhone app of the year for 2011.
Instagram for iPhone debuted in October 2010, and lets users add different custom filters to photos in order to change the colors, mood, border, and tonality of their snapshots. It hit 1 million users after just three months.
Last month, Instagram released an update that, among other things, simplified the interface and added the "Lux" photo-editing feature. In an effort to avoid the privacy snafu faced by Path, meanwhile, Instagram also recently updated its iOS app to require users to give the app permission to upload their contact lists.
For more, see PCMag's full review of Instagram for iPhone. For more from SXSW, see the slideshow below.