Instagram is one of the most popular social media networks that you can find out there. This is a social networking and a photo/video sharing platform. It is based in the United States. As of now, Instagram is fully owned by Facebook Inc.
Instagram was created by Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom. This platform was launched to the public in the year 2010. During the initial days, it was only available for iOS. However, the application was made available for Android devices after two years. Instagram was mainly a mobile app. It had a website, but the website only had a limited number of functionalities.
This social media network was originally designed to help people share photos in a 1:1 aspect ratio. All the photos uploaded into the platform were in squares, where each picture had 640 pixels. However, major transformations were introduced to the platform in 2015, and most of these restrictions were eliminated. For example, users of Instagram were allowed to upload photos in 1080 pixels resolution. On top of that, Instagram added a large number of messaging features as well. They included uploading multiple images or videos into a single post.
History of Instagram
The founders of Instagram wanted to come up with a mobile check-in app. That’s where they started developments on Instagram. In fact, they wanted to develop an app and give a competition to Foursquare, which was quite popular during that time period. However, they wanted to focus more on photo sharing. The name Instagram was selected for the app carefully. In fact, they merged the words instant camera and telegram to come up with the name of the Instagram app.
During 2010, the two co-founders were able to close a seed funding round and get the funds needed to develop the Instagram platform. The very first photo uploaded to the Instagram platform was a picture of the South Beach Harbor. It was uploaded by Mike Krieger. Along with time, Instagram kept on raising funds. These funds helped the mobile app increase its features and get more popularity and attention from people interested.
Significant updates started creeping into the Instagram app from the year 2014. Therefore, more people were interested in getting Instagram accounts and exploring their features. By the year 2017, the Instagram app had 600 million users outside the United States. In fact, it has already grown into a strong mobile app.
On the year 2012, Facebook went ahead and purchased Instagram. However, they decided to keep the company under independent management. As of now, we can see a large number of common features among Instagram and Facebook. That’s mainly because both these are managed by the same company.
Features of Instagram
The primary feature of Instagram is to allow the users to go ahead and upload their photos into the appl. Along with the photos, you will be able to add short videos as well. You can follow other users on Instagram and get more followers under your name as well. When you follow other users, you will see their feed containing the photos and videos uploaded. Likewise, people who follow you will be able to see what you are uploading to the platform. It is possible to restrict the privacy of uploaded content to make them visible public or only to your followers. Once you set up a private account, a person should obtain your permission to follow you on Instagram.
Instagram filters were there from the initial days. You will be able to enhance the look and feel of the photos that you upload with the help of these Instagram filters. This feature contributed a lot to the popularity of Instagram back in the day as well. Before uploading the photo, it is possible to do some basic edits to it as well. For example, the users can crop, rotate, and even add markups to the photos, such as changing the brightness or contrast. Such a limited number of editing features are available for videos that are uploaded into Instagram as well.
When you are uploading a photo or a video, it is possible to tag the location along with it. This feature was also available in the mobile app from the initial days.
A feature is available on Instagram for you to save the photos and videos you are uploading into the app. You will be able to manage them intelligently in a separate area. Hence, you can ensure that you are not losing access to the photos or videos you upload.
From the year 2017, people were provided with the chance to upload up to 10 images and videos into the Instagram posts. You can include all these within a single post. Hence, people who view them could go through using the swappable carousel.
One of the core features that can be found in the Instagram app is hashtags. Hashtags are in a position to provide excellent assistance to the users by discovering photos with ease. In fact, Instagram is encouraging all users to include appropriate hashtags with the images. Similarly, the social media platform discourages users from uploading general hashtags, such as #photo, as much as possible.
The explore feature has been there with Instagram from the past as well. This feature can be accessed through a separate tab that is available within the app. Once a user gets into this feature, he will be able to see popular photos that are taken in the neighborhood. Any person who wants to get hold of trending content will be able to use this feature. It also provides a search bar, which can locate specific user accounts, photos uploaded in specific locations, and specific hashtags.