How To: Find Out What's Happening in Your City Right Now with Real-Time Instagrams on Your iPhone

The only thing worse than not having any plans is not even knowing where to begin making them. Sure, you can check Yelp or one of countless other review sites to find a great spot, but there's no way of knowing what the vibe is like before you get there. Is it crowded? Are people having fun, or does it look pretty lame?

Here to answer those all-important questions is Now. It's a new iPhone app that helps you find events in your area, then uses Instagram's API to pull geotagged photos so that you can see what's going on right now, or who had a great time there last week.

The photos are organized by city and event, then hand-curated by the team behind the app themselves and served up in individual feeds. You can use the feeds to discover parties, bars, or any other events that a lot of people are Instagramming.

You can use the filters to look for specific types of events, and follow other users who share photos of events you're interested in. For instance, if the weather is gorgeous and you don't want to be cooped up inside, you can search for only outdoor events.

Looking for a new spot to eat? Search the food-related events to find out who's got the best spaghetti and meatballs in town. Going on a trip, or just bored of your city? You can also use the app to see what's going on in Tokyo right now. Hey, if you can't be there yourself, at least you can live vicariously through others.

Your experience with Now will depend on how many people in your area are using it, so obviously folks who live in large cities will have a lot more feeds and events to browse through. You can find out more about the app on the company's website, and download it for free over on the App Store.