Instagram (commonly abbreviated to IG, Insta or the gram)[9][10][11] is an American photo and video sharing social networking service created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. In April 2012, Facebook acquired the service for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can be shared publicly or with pre-approved followers. Users can browse other users' content by tags and locations and view trending content. Users can like photos and follow other users to add their content to a personal feed.
Instagram was originally distinguished by only allowing content to be framed in a square (1:1) aspect ratio with 640 pixels to match the display width of the iPhone at the time. In 2015, these restrictions were eased with an increase to 1080 pixels. The service also added messaging features, the ability to include multiple images or videos in a single post, and a 'stories' feature—similar to its main opposition Snapchat—which allows users to post photos and videos to a sequential feed, with each post accessible by others for 24 hours each. As of January 2019, the Stories feature is used by 500 million users daily.[12]
Originally launched for iOS in October 2010, Instagram rapidly gained popularity, with one million registered users in two months, 10 million in a year, and 1 billion as of June 2018.[13] The Android version was released in April 2012, followed by a feature-limited desktop interface in November 2012, a Fire OS app in June 2014, and an app for Windows 10 in October 2016. As of October 2015, over 40 billion photos had been uploaded. Although praised for its influence, Instagram has been the subject of criticism, most notably for policy and interface changes, allegations of censorship, and illegal or improper content uploaded by users.
As of June 2021, the most followed person is Portuguese professional footballer Cristiano Ronaldo with over 300 million followers. The most followed woman is American singer Ariana Grande. As of January 14, 2019, the most-liked photo on Instagram is a picture of an egg, posted by the account @world_record_egg, created with the sole purpose of surpassing the previous record of 18 million likes on a Kylie Jenner post. The picture currently has over 55 million likes.[14] The second most-liked photo is a wedding photo of Ariana Grande and her husband Dalton Gomez.[15] Instagram became the 4th most downloaded mobile app of the 2010s.[16]
History
Instagram began development in San Francisco as Burbn, a mobile check-in app created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.[17] Realizing that Burbn was too similar to Foursquare, Systrom and Krieger refocused their app on photo-sharing, which had become a popular feature among Burbn users.[18] They renamed the app Instagram, a portmanteau of "instant camera" and "telegram".[19]
2010–2011: Beginnings and major funding
On March 5, 2010, Systrom closed a $500,000 seed funding round with Baseline Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz while working on Burbn.[20] Josh Riedel joined the company in October as Community Manager,[21] Shayne Sweeney joined in November as an engineer,[21] and Jessica Zollman joined as a Community Evangelist in August 2011.[21][22]
The first Instagram post was a photo of South Beach Harbor at Pier 38, posted by Mike Krieger at 5:26 PM on July 16, 2010.[23][24] Systrom shared his first post, a picture of a dog and his girlfriend's foot, a few hours later at 9:24 PM. It has been wrongly attributed as the first Instagram photo due to the earlier letter of the alphabet in its URL.[25][26][better source needed] On October 6, 2010, the Instagram iOS app was officially released through the App Store.[27]
In February 2011, it was reported that Instagram had raised $7 million in Series A funding from a variety of investors, including Benchmark Capital, Jack Dorsey, Chris Sacca (through Capital fund), and Adam D'Angelo.[28] The deal valued Instagram at around $20 million.[29] In April 2012, Instagram raised $50 million from venture capitalists with a $500 million valuation.[30] Joshua Kushner was the second largest investor in Instagram's Series B fundraising round, leading his investment firm, Thrive Capital, to double its money after the sale to Facebook.[31]
2012–2014: Additional platforms and acquisition by Facebook
On April 3, 2012, Instagram released a version of its app for Android phones,[32][33] and it was downloaded more than one million times in less than one day.[34] The Android app has since received two significant updates: first, in March 2014, which cut the file size of the app by half and added performance improvements;[35][36] then in April 2017, to add an offline mode that allows users to view and interact with content without an Internet connection. At the time of the announcement, it was reported that 80% of Instagram's 600 million users are located outside the U.S., and while the aforementioned functionality was live at its announcement, Instagram also announced its intention to make more features available offline, and that they were "exploring an iOS version".[37][38][39]
On April 9, 2012, Facebook, Inc. bought Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock,[40][41][42] with a plan to keep the company independently managed.[43][44][45] Britain's Office of Fair Trading approved the deal on August 14, 2012,[46] and on August 22, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission in the U.S. closed its investigation, allowing the deal to proceed.[47] On September 6, 2012, the deal between Instagram and Facebook officially closed with a purchase price of $300 million in cash and 23 million shares of stock.[48][49]
The deal closed just before Facebook's scheduled initial public offering according to CNN.[45] The deal price was compared to the $35 million Yahoo! paid for Flickr in 2005.[45] Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook was "committed to building and growing Instagram independently."[45] According to Wired, the deal netted Systrom $400 million.[50]
In November 2012, Instagram launched website profiles, allowing anyone to see user feeds from a web browser with limited functionality,[51] as well as a selection of badges, web widget buttons to link to profiles.[52]
Since the app's launch it had used the Foursquare API technology to provide named location tagging. In March 2014, Instagram started to test and switch the technology to use Facebook Places.[53][54]
2015–2017: Redesign and Windows app
In June 2015, the desktop website user interface was redesigned to become more flat and minimalistic, but with more screen space for each photo and to resemble the layout of Instagram's mobile website.[55][56][57] Furthermore, one row of pictures only has three instead of five photos to match the mobile layout. The slideshow banner[58][59] on the top of profile pages, which simultaneously slide-showed seven picture tiles of pictures posted by the user, alternating at different times in a random order, has been removed. In addition, the formerly angular profile pictures became circular.
On May 11, 2016, Instagram revamped its design, adding a black-and-white flat design theme for the app's user interface, and a less skeuomorphistic, more abstract, "modern" and colorful icon.[60][61][62] Rumors of a redesign first started circulating in April, when The Verge received a screenshot from a tipster, but at the time, an Instagram spokesperson simply told the publication that it was only a concept.[63]
On December 6, 2016, Instagram introduced comment liking. However, unlike post likes, the user who posted a comment does not receive notifications about comment likes in their notification inbox. Uploaders can optionally decide to deactivate comments on a post.[64][65][66]
In April 2016, Instagram released a Windows 10 Mobile app, after years of demand from Microsoft and the public to release an app for the platform.[67][68] The platform previously had a beta version of Instagram, first released on November 21, 2013 for Windows Phone 8.[69][70][71] The new app added support for videos (viewing and creating posts or stories, and viewing live streams), album posts and direct messages.[72] Similarly, an app for Windows 10 personal computers and tablets was released in October 2016.[73][74] In May, Instagram updated its mobile website to allow users to upload photos, and to add a "lightweight" version of the Explore tab.[75][76]
On April 30, 2019, the Windows 10 Mobile app was discontinued, though the mobile website remains available as a progressive web application (PWA) with limited functionality. The app remains available on Windows 10 computers and tablets, also updated to a PWA in 2020.
2018–2019: IGTV, removal of the like counter, management changes
To comply with the GDPR regulations regarding data portability, Instagram introduced the ability for users to download an archive of their user data in April 2018.[77][78][79]
IGTV launched on June 20, 2018 as a standalone video application.
On September 24, 2018, Krieger and Systrom announced in a statement they would be stepping down from Instagram.[80][81] On October 1, 2018, it was announced that Adam Mosseri would be the new head of Instagram.[82][83]
During Facebook F8, it was announced that Instagram would, beginning in Canada, pilot the removal of publicly-displayed "like" counts for content posted by other users.[84] Like counts would only be visible to the user who originally posted the content. Mosseri stated that this was intended to have users "worry a little bit less about how many likes they're getting on Instagram and spend a bit more time connecting with the people that they care about."[85][86] It has been argued that low numbers of likes in relativity to others could contribute to a lower self-esteem in users.[86][84] The pilot began in May 2019, and was extended to 6 other markets in July.[86][87] The pilot was expanded worldwide in November 2019.[88] Also in July 2019, Instagram announced that it would implement new features designed to reduce harassment and negative comments on the service.[89]
In August 2019, Instagram also began to pilot the removal of the "Following" tab from the app, which had allowed users to view a feed of the likes and comments made by users they follow. The change was made official in October, with head of product Vishal Shah stating that the feature was underused and that some users were "surprised" when they realized their activity was being surfaced in this manner.[90][91]
In October 2019, Instagram introduced a limit on the number of posts visible in page scrolling mode unless logged in. Until this point, public profiles had been available to all users, even when not logged in. Following the change, after viewing a number of posts a pop-up requires the user to log in to continue viewing content.[92][93][94]
2020–present: New features
In March 2020, Instagram launched a new feature called "Co-Watching". The new feature allows users to share posts with each other over video calls. According to Instagram, they pushed forward the launch of Co-Watching in order to meet the demand for virtually connecting with friends and family due to social distancing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.[95]
In August 2020, Instagram launched a new feature called "Reels". The feature is similar to TikTok.[96] Instagram also added suggested posts in August 2020. After scrolling through posts from the past 48 hours, Instagram displays posts related to their interests from accounts they do not follow.[97]
In February 2021, Instagram began testing a new feature called Vertical Stories, said by some sources to be inspired by TikTok.[98] The same month, they also began testing the removal of ability to share feed posts to stories.[99]
In March 2021, Instagram launched a new feature in which four people can go live at once.[100] Instagram also announced that adults would not be allowed to message teens who don't follow them as part of a series of new child safety policies.[101][102][103][104]
In May 2021, Instagram began allowing users in some regions to add pronouns to their profile page
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