Just in time for Feb. 14, photo buffs can now create Valentine's Day greetings for their special someone out of their Instagram photos.
Lovestagram, a new plug-in for the Instagram iOS app, is a simple Valentine creator that uses Instagram photos. The interactive card maker, launched Thursday, lets you apply love-themed borders, such as hearts, candy and pink cameras, to Instagram photos. The Valentine greetings can then be sent via email to your sweetie.
The app was built by Kaitlyn Trigger, a marketing director for the social fundraising Web site Rally.org, who also happens to be the girlfriend of Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger. Trigger, who has been dating Krieger for the past 2.5 years – since before the launch of his massively popular photo-sharing app – created Lovestgram as a Valentine's Day gift for her beau.
The only problem – Trigger didn't know how to code. To build Lovestagram, the Yale political science major, who previously had never even taken a computer class, taught herself Python, Django, Jinja, HTML, CSS, jQuery, and Photoshop.
"Turns out, learning to code isn't so hard when you're in love (and when your boyfriend is a software engineer)," she said in an email to Gizmodo.
To use Lovestagram, simply sign in with your Instagram account username and password. Then, enter the username of your special someone and Lovestagram will create a love-themed slideshow of all the Instagram photos shared between the two of you.
The app works for anyone, regardless of relationship status. Trigger said she may expand Lovestagram in the future to include holiday, birthday, and anniversary cards.
In her own Lovestagram to her boyfriend, Trigger wrote, "Happy Valentine's Day, Mike! Like an Instagram filter, you make my world more beautiful. xoxo, Kaitlyn."
For more, see PCMag's full review of Instagram. Also check out our 11 Geeky Valentine's Day Gifts Under $50 slideshow below.