The Story Of Instagram – A Camera App Turned Into The Second Most Important Social Network

No wonders, a photo and video-sharing app like Instagram has taken the world by storm and today it is not sufficed to a mere camera app, but it has turned out to be an incredible social network.

Since the launch of in 2010 Instagram has garnered the net worth of more than $100 billion US and by 2018 the monthly active users reached 1 billion – almost one-eighth of the world’s population.

However, this charming journey wasn’t crossed in just one night, but it consumed a passage of time to turn the seed concept to turn into a well-flourished tree of revenue today.

A Quick Snapshot Of Instagram’s History?

To start this very app had another name ‘Burbn’, before being rechristened as Instagram. The idea grabbed the seed funding worth $500K, letting the product to get built on iOS, Android, and Windows phone platforms. Further, the project received two more funding rounds, with a total of $57.5M in total and ten investors.

The story took an interesting turn when Instagram’s founders – Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger decided to sell their startup to Facebook in 2012 at the whopping cost of $1 billion ($300 million in cash, the rest in Facebook stock).

Yes, it was the HUGE deal, which gathered the attention from the globe.

Instagram is a free social photo-sharing app, is extremely popular among users.

According to official statistical information, 95 million pictures are posted on Instagram daily.

The success Instagram attained, made the well-known photo-sharing apps: Swipe, Snapchat, Vine, Camera, Flickr to name a few, to come into existence.

What triggered the unique selling proposition for Instagram?

According to Statista, the number of smartphone users is likely to reach almost 3 billion by the end of 2020.

On being launched, Instagram was a separate photo-sharing and editing tool existed in the market. The very fusion of both elements became the Unique Selling Proposition and in the next 2 months, the platform garnered 1 million active users.

Features integrated into Instagram as a Photo-editing App

• It holds undeniably loads of colorful filters and elements, which get adjusted with photos.
• Users are allowed to change photo’s size, adjust its brightness, contrast, structure, warmth, and use markers, texts, and other elements.

Features integrated into Instagram as an E-commerce Platform

• Indeed Social Commerce is a new technology, which is reshaping the future of e-commerce to a great extent.
• Instagram lets the businesses to earn a commission from each transaction made via its platform.

Features integrated into Instagram as a Messenger 

• The DM feature on Instagram is the engaging platform and allows the users to share highlights, exchange ideas, and connect more with other users.

Instagram Technology Stack

• React Native -iOS & Android apps
• Python (Django framework) & HTML5JavaScript -server-side
• Computing services -Amazon S3, Amazon, EBS, Amazon EC2
• Database -PostgreSQL

 Now the biggest question falls into your lap, that how to make a social media app like Instagram? Here are some MVP features app should have.

Authorization

• Allow the users to start their journey with an account authorization.
• Here you can allow the users to register through an email account, phone number, or a social media account.
• Add the option of resetting via the email, phone or a user social media account.

Profile Editing

• On log-in users must be given an option to edit the account.
• It can include fields like name, gender, phone number, website, profile picture, bio, etc.

Uploading Photos & Videos

• Users can upload photos and videos through this feature.
• Include features like preview display, uploading existing content, commenting, tagging, taking pictures, etc.

Photo Editing

• This feature brings a great option for users to apply different filters.
• Add picture customization, such as rotation, straightening, zooming, and other editing capabilities.

Linking With Social Networks

• Linking the app with other social channels is a great option.
• It will help the users to connect faster and easier with their other friends.

Geo-location Option

• Geo-location will help to extend the app functionality.
• It must allow users to share places where photos and videos are taken.
• It can consist of showing a place not only tagged on the photo but on the map too.

Search Feature

• The search option lets users find the right information using a set of predefined parameters.

Messaging & Commenting

• The feature of communication with others is a great option.
• In this feature, users can get exchange messages and can chat in real-time.
• Also, users can comment on each other’s photos.
• Include push notification into your mobile app, letting users to get notified about all incoming messages and comments.

Adjust Settings

• Settings should be adjustable, for the convenience of usage.
• Allow users to select the interface language, enable/disable push notifications, set the account as private, etc.

Stories

• With a Story feature, users can share moments of their day.
• It can be disappeared in 24 hours if users don’t save them.
• Stories can be photos or videos.
• It allows the users to users can add text, stickers, live face filters and stickers on the stories.

Features Instagram introduced between 2017 and 2018!

• Boomerang –It makes 1.5 seconds looping videos.
• Superzoom – It can record a 3-second clip that zooms close on what the camera is pointed at.
• Rewind videos – Lets making a rewind video out of ordinary footage.
• Emoji slider – You can add to a story, and ask questions. Others can react by sliding an emoji.
• Question stickers – An interactive sticker to share with the audience and let them ask you questions.
• Nametag – It is the customizable identity card, letting users to find people on Instagram when it’s scanned.
• Stories highlights – A feature allowing users to import their ongoing and past stories.
• IGTV – An engaging YouTube rival with horizontal videos.
• Shoppable posts – Lets business accounts to initiate the selling of their goods.
• Explore page – It was rethought and redesigned.
• Hashtags and profile links in bio – Instagram triggered the popularity level of hashtags (#) and profile links (@).

How much does it cost to develop an app like Instagram?

Agree, the cost is the factor, which keeps on banging in your head, every now & then, and before investing your money into the app development of an app like Instagram, considering the cost is not at all a bad idea.

However it is a way to hard to predict the accurate cost for the development and it largely gets affected by several factors, but the average cost to build Instagram sort of app would cost anything between $60,000 – $70,000 for both the major platforms.

But you must ensure that this is just an average cost bracket and the number of features, functionalities and the type of technology utilized into it, can trigger or lower the cost to any extent.

Remember it is merely a rough estimate of the development of an app like Instagram and actual cost may vary to a larger extent.

To wrap up it can easily be stated that Instagram was able to capture the worldwide popularity due to the simple yet elegant interface, fast performance, and engaging features. Therefore to create an awe-inspiring app like Instagram, you need to integrate the new trends & technological solutions to secure the success rate for your app. Furthermore, the right balance of features & functionalities being included by a leading mobile app development company in USA like Techugo would secure the stronger chances for your app to win the odds of competition.

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