Facebook training its sights on Instagram with photo filters

Social network expected to introduce new feature to its mobile app in the coming months.

Having had an acquisition attempt rebuffed this summer, Facebook is set to go head-to-head with Instagram in the mobile photo-fitering space later this year. At least, that's what the New York Times' Bits blog is claiming, based on information from two engineers at the social network.

Its report claims that Facebook will add a number of photo filters to its mobile apps soon, offering similar functionality to that which has made Instagram one of the fastest growing social iPhone apps in recent months, with more than eight million users.

It suggests there will be almost a dozen individual filters in the Facebook app, which when applied to photos will give them a stylised look - vintage or otherwise.

Should Instagram be worried? Yes and no. Competition from Facebook certainly shouldn't be sniffed at, given the social network's size: more than 250 million of its 750 million users are accessing the service from their phones.

However, Facebook v Instagram has a direct parallel in Facebook v Foursquare. When Facebook launched its Facebook Places check-in feature last year, it was portrayed as a potential Foursquare killer. This week, Facebook announced that it's phasing out the feature in favour of location being a wider part of its service. Meanwhile, Foursquare has continued to grow.

Meanwhile, Instagram is likely to have some key features that Facebook's app won't: namely the ability to share photos on other social networks and sites - Twitter being the key example.

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