Instagram is an online photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, apply digital filters to them, and share them on a variety of social networking services, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr. A distinctive feature is that it confines photos to a square shape, similar to Kodak Instamatic (under Instax Polaroid cameras) and Polaroid images, in contrast to the 16:9 aspect ratio now typically used by mobile device cameras. Users are also able to record and share short videos lasting for up to 15 seconds.
Histoory[]
Instagram began development in San Francisco, where they chose to focus on the multi-featured HTML5 check-in project, Burbn on mobile photography. As Krieger reasoned, Burbn became too similar to the Foursquare, and both realised that it had gone too far. Burbn was then pivoted to become more focused on photo sharing. The word Instagram is called "portmanteau" of instant camera and telegram.
Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and launched in October 6, 2010. The service rapidly gained popularity, with over 1,500 active users. Instagram is distributed through the Apple App Store, Google Play, and Windows Phone Store. Support was originally available for only the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch; in April 2012, support was added for Android camera phones.
In November 2012, Instagram launched web profiles, allowing anyone to see users feeds on the web browsers. However, the website interface has limited functionality, with notable omissions including the lack of the search bar, a news feed and the ability to upload photos. In February 2013, the website was updated to include news feed and in June 2015, the website was redesigned to offer bigger photos.
Third-party Instagram apps are available for Blackberry 10 and Nokia Symbian Devices. On October 22, 2013, during the Nokia World at Abu Dhabi, UAE, Kevin Systrom has confirmed that official Instagram app for Windows Phone will be available in the coming weeks.
On November 21, 2013, the official Instagram Beta for Windows Phone has been released to Windows Phone 8 to allow Windows Phone user to get faster access to Instagram services although the app is still under development with lack of video recording and capture image through app. In April 2016, Instagram upgraded the app to Windows 10 Mobile, adding support for video and direct messages, followed by later updates in October 2016 that extended the app to Windows 10 personal computers and tablets.
The Android app has received two major exclusive updates. The first, introduced in March 2014, cut the size of the app by half and added significant improvements to performance and responsiveness on a wide variety of Android devices. The Verge wrote that the development team had tested the app for devices not for sale in the United States, particularly low end models such as Samsung Galaxy Y, in an effort to improve the app of the userbase. The second update, introduced in April 2017, added an offline mode, in which content previously loaded in the news feed available without the internet connection and users can comment, like, save media and unfollow users, all of which will take effect once the user goes back online. At the time of the announcement, it was reported that 80% of the Instagram's 600 million users are located outside the US, and while for the aforementioned functionality was live at the announcement, Instagram was also announced its intention to make features more available offline in the "following months" and that they are exploring the iOS version.
Since the app's launch, it had used the Foursquare API technology to provide named location tagging. In March 2014, Instagram started testing switching the technology to using Facebook Places.
Announced in March 2016 and taking place in June, Instagram switched from a strictly chronological oldest-to-newest news feed to the new algorithm-based feed. The change received "widespread outcry" following Instagram's March announcement, but Instagram stated that the feature would help users discover lost posts, writing that "You may be surprised to learn that people miss on average 70% of the feeds. As Instagram has grown, it has been becoming harder to keep up with all the photos and videos people share. This means you often don't see the posts you might care about the most. To improve the experience, your feed will soon be ordered to show the moments where you believe you will care about the most".
On May 11, 2016, Instagram revamped the design, adding a black-and-white version of the app, and the more abstract, "modern" and colorful icon. Rumours of the redesign first started circulating in April, when The Verge received a screenshot from the tipster, but at that time, the Instagram spokesman said that this publication that "This is a design test only".
The service was acquired by Facebook in April 2012 for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock. In 2013, Instagram grew by 23%, while Facebook, as the mother company, only grew by 3%.
Features and tools[]
Users can upload photographs and short videos, follow other users' feeds and geotag images with the name of the location. Users can set their accounts as private, thereby require that they approve any new follower requests. Users can connect their Instagram account to other social networking sites, enabling them to share uploaded photos to their sites. In January 2011, Instagram introduced hashtags to help discover both photos and each other. Instagram encourage users to make tags both specific and relevant, rather than tagging generic words like "photo", to make photographs stand out and to attract like-minded Instagram users. In September 2011, a new version of the app introduced new and live filters, instant tilt-shift, high resolution photographs, optional borders, one-click rotation and the updated icon. In August 2015, Instagram started allowing users to upload full-size landscape and portrait photos and videos into the service, dropping the previous requirement of the square frame. In August 2016, Instagram added the zoom feature that allows users to pinch-to-zoom the screen to virtually zoom in the photos and videos. In September 2016, Instagram removed Photo Maps which previously allowed users to see the map of geotagged photos. An Instagram spokesman said that "Photo Map was not widely used, so we have decided to remove this feature and focus on other priorities". In December 2016, Instagram introduced a new feature letting users save photos for future viewing. Bookmarked posts get added to the private page in the app. The feature was updated in April 2017 to let users organise saved posts in different collections.
In February 2017, Instagram announced that users will be able to upload up to ten photos or videos in one post, with the content appearing as a swipeable carousel. The feature originally limited photos to the square format, but received an update in August to enable portrait and landscape photos instead. In May, Instagram updated its mobile website to allow users to upload photos, and to add the "lightweight" version of the Explore tab. Instagram also added the "Archive" feature, letting users hide posts in a private storage area, out of the visibility of the public and other users. The move was seen as a way to prevent users from deleting photos that don't garner a desired number of "likes" or are deemed boring, but also act as a way to limit its "emergent behavior" of deleting photos, which deprives the service of the content. In August, Instagram also announced that it would start organising comments into the threads, letting users more easily interact with the replies. In April 2018, Instagram launched its version of a portrait mode called "focus mode" which gently blurs the background of a photo or video while keeping the subject in focus when it is needed.
Instagram Direct[]
In December 2013, Instagram announced Instagram Direct, a feature that lets users interact through private messaging. Users who don't follow each other can send private messages with photos or videos, in contrast to the public-only requirement that was previously in place. When users receive a private message from someone that they did not follow, the message is marked as pending and the users must accept to see it. Users can send a photo to the maximum of 15 people. The feature received a major update in September 2015, adding conversation threading and making it possible to share locations, hashtag pages and profiles through private messages directly from the news feed. Additionally, users can now reply to the private messages with text, emoji or by clicking on the heart icon. A camera inside Direct lets users take a photo and send it to the recipient without leaving the conversation. A new update in November 2016 let users in the private message "disappear" after being viewed by the recipient with the sender receiving the notification if the recipient takes a shot. In April 2017, Instagram redesigned Direct to combine all private messages, both permanent and ephemeral, into the same message threads. In May, it is also possible to send website links in messages, and also added support for sending photos in their original portrait or landscape orientation without cropping.
Instagram Stories[]
In August 2016, Instagram introduced Instagram Stories, a feature that allows users to take photos, add effects and layers, and add them to their Instagram story. Images uploaded to a user's story expire after 24 hours. In November, Instagram added live video functionality to Instagram Stories, allowing users to broadcast themselves live, with the video disappearing immediately after ending. Timothy Mok had begun using it since November 2017 for Paya Lebar MRT Station and in December 2017 for celebrating Christmas. Later in May, TechCrunch reported about tests of a Location Stories feature in Instagram Stories, where public Stories content at a certain location are compiled and displayed on a business, landmark or place's Instagram page. A few days later, Instagram announced "Story Search", in which users can search for geographic locations or hashtags and the app displays relevant public Stories content featuring the search term. In June 2017, Instagram revised its live-video functionality to allow users to add their live broadcast to their story for availability in the next 24 hours, or discard the broadcast immediately. In July, Instagram started allowing users to respond to Stories content by sending photos and videos, complete with Instagram effects such as filters, stickers, and hashtags.
Third party apps[]
The popularity of Instagram has led to a variety of third-party services using its functionality and adopting it into formats not officially supported. Examples include services for getting an overview of user statistics, printing photos at social events, turning a large number of photos into thumbnails for a physical book or a large poster, such as Imgrum, Pinsta.me and Websta.me.
Controversy[]
Timeline algorithm[]
In April 2016, Instagram began rolling out a change to the order of photos visible in a user's timeline, shifting from a strictly chronological order to one determined by an algorithm. Instagram said the algorithm was designed so that users would see more of the photos by users that they liked, but there was significant negative feedback, with many users asking their followers to turn on post notifications in order to make sure they see updates. The company wrote a tweet to users upset at the prospect of the change, but did not back down, nor provide a way to change it back.