MontageMergedInstagram launched a new standalone app called Layout today that lets mobile photographers take a bunch of photos and lay them out in one collage for easy sharing.

Users pick images from their camera roll, and the app will put them together into different layouts that showcase all of the images at once. Users can tweak the layout themselves if they want to change image dimensions, as well as move photos around within the collage by dragging them.

To help users put together photos of their friends, it includes a “Faces” tab that scans a user’s photo library and shows only images that include a person’s face. There’s also a “Recents” tab that lets people go back and pick from images they recently selected to put in a collage.

tumblr_inline_nlh64l108f1svf3j7_500In addition, the app includes a “Photo Booth” feature that makes a user’s smartphone behave much like a photo booth that they might find at a mall. The app will take up to 4 shots from the front-facing camera in fairly quick succession, and then lay them out in a collage. In other words, it’s a slightly extended take on the selfie.

It’s something that other photo apps have done before, but this is the first time that Instagram itself has thrown its weight behind collages. Right now, the app is only available for the iPhone, but the company says that it’s working on an Android app as well.

Of course, once users are done, they can then save the image to their camera roll and share the photos to Instagram and Facebook, along with other apps that support sharing through iOS’s Extensions system.

This is the second standalone app from the Facebook-owned photo sharing network. Last year, Instagram launched Hyperlapse, an app that helps users take better time-lapse videos with their smartphone.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.