Facebook Wanted to Buy Instagram, Will Release Photo Filters Instead [

[Waqas 48]

Following a failed attempt to acquire Instagram, Facebook will roll out up to a dozen photo filters in a mobile application release, according to a report from The New York Times Bits Blog.

Several Instagram-like photo filters are ready for release, two unnamed Facebook engineers cited in the report say, but the release date is unknown at this time.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pushing engineers and artists “to create more filters before releasing the new product,” Bits reports. “Facebook will also try to introduce new styles of filters with the hopes of drawing users away from other photo apps.”

This isn’t the first we’ve heard of Facebook photo filters. TechCrunch reported in June that Facebook was working on a spin-off photo-sharing application for iPhone. Screenshots obtained by the blog indicated the app would have “location elements, likes and comments, multi-picture mode, filters, multi-user albums, face-tagging, and more.”

Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom declined to comment on whether Facebook attempted to acquire his startup over the summer. Representatives at Facebook could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

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