A squadron of apps have emerged to help you conjoin your selfies. In fact, some of the most-downloaded photo apps in the iPhone App Store are those that simply let you put more than one picture in one Instagram post. A few photo-stitchers we've looked at include PicsArt, Pic Stitch, and BeFunky. But now Instagram wants to save you from having to install a third-party app, by offering Layout, its own collage app.

Starting Up

The Layout app, which runs on iOS 7 or later, is a reasonable 5MB download. It's compatible with iPad, but optimized for iPhone 5 and iPhone 6. When you first launch the app, you're treated to a five-panel slideshow apprising you of its functions. Before you can really get started, you need to give the app permission to access your photos on the phone. As with Instagram's Hyperlapse, you can get started using the app without having to log in to an account of any kind, which I like.

Below Layout's colorful hollow-square logo, you'll see your phone's photos, which you can filter by All, Faces, or Recent. Some of your photos with faces might not appear (face recognition technology still isn't 100 percent), so you may have to look through all photos if you don't see the one you want. Tap on up to nine photos shown in the bottom half of the screen, and you get layout choices for them at the top.