Instagram has become one of the most used applications, not only by people, but also by companies, online stores, entrepreneurs, etc. With it we can share good times or encourage the purchase of products or services. But what do you know about the Instagram story?
Today we are going to review the past to learn a little more about how Instagram was born and how it began to evolve to what it is today.
what is the instagram story
The first thing you should know is that Instagram was born in 2010 as an individual social network (that is, it was not yet Meta (Facebook)).
Specifically, we must attribute the network to Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom, who, in San Francisco, devised a mobile photography project. Your name? Burbn.
Burbn, Instagram's real name until it was changed, was an app for photographers, or at least focused primarily on photography. In fact, the idea of the creators was to be able to create a place where the photos that were taken with the mobile were uploaded so that others could see them and tell us what they were like.
First they devised the iPhone app which, after more than 200.000 users on that network, three months later reached a million. That's why they decided to release the Android version.
However it was not as you know it now. Its operation was much more complicated. To begin with, it was a geolocation app and it was a lot like FourSquare. What prevailed was that photos be uploaded but that they be located, that is, that they say where it had been taken. What's more, the photos were just square because I wanted to pay homage to Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid.
The first photo uploaded, by one of the creators, was of a dog (Kevin's pet).
It didn't take them long to change focus. They no longer wanted to look like FourSquare but focused their goals simply on editing and publishing images.
They named this new app, based on the original, Instagram. But do you know why?
The reason why Instagram is called Instagram
Within the Instagram story, his own name has a story. And it has to do with the creators. They remembered the words "snapshot" and "telegram" from their childhood. Also, they loved Polaroid at that time, which as you know was a very famous brand of photography.
What they did was take those two words and put them together, hence Insta, instantly; and telegram gram.
The age of hashtags
Believe it or not, hashtags didn't come with Facebook. Actually on Instagram they became famous in 2011 and allowed us to relate the publication to specific topics so that others could find those images that they liked.
In that year, they already had more than 5 million people using Instagram and their app was a success, which is why Facebook (Meta) noticed them).
Do you remember that we said that they released the Android version? Well, despite the fact that the network was founded in 2010, it was not until 2012, in April, when it appeared. And it had such an impact that, in less than 24 hours, they had more than a million downloads. And that was the trigger for Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook, to decide that he had to buy that network. In fact, it took 6 days from the Android launch to get hold of the app (for $1000 billion).
The new Instagram story with Mark Zuckerberg
Being Instagram already from Meta (or Facebook at that time), it undergoes a complete “facelift”. They not only improved the app, but introduced many improvements. The first? Being able to tag people in photos. The following? Provide it with an internal messaging where you could send both photos and videos.
It must be said that the first changes were very small, hardly any news which were included little by little. And as these were approved by users, always maintaining an attractive design and very easy to use, what came next was a revolution.
And it is that, during 2015 and 2016 Instagram underwent a series of very important changes. We can highlight, for example, the fact that advertising reached the application. Ads and sponsored posts, which did not exist until that time, began to appear to users.
Also at that time there was a logo change, a renovation that divided users a bit between those who liked the new image and those who preferred the old one. Stories also arrived, that is, Instagram stories, which allowed users to upload a photo or video and have it displayed for 24 hours. Of course, it was because he failed when trying to buy Snapchat (so, since he couldn't, he copied that functionality).
But perhaps the most striking thing was the “explore” section, in which users were allowed to find content of any kind, without them having to be followers whom he followed with his account, which opened up many more possibilities to discover new accounts. And shortly after, she added the live video.
But there was also a bad thing. And it is that the instagram founders, which were still inside the app, with the changes that were made, especially the change of the logo, decided to leave their positions and resign because they didn't agree with what Facebook was doing.
2018, the year of IGTV
It was in 2018 when Instagram enabled one more feature, IGTV, a system of long videos in which users could record and upload them without having a short duration limitation.
Although there are not many who use it, it is still strong, and Instagram at that time triumphed with that function.
From 2020 to present
We had stayed in the last changes in 2018. But they have not been the last on Instagram. Two years after these developments, they decided throw the reels, a copy of TikTok that at that time was beginning to emerge. So they implemented this enhancement to create, edit and post fun videos (at first quite limited in time).
En 2021 there were two “attacks”: On the one hand, they went to e-commerce, allowing in-app purchases to be made; on the other hand, not showing the number of likes, something controversial and that some applauded and others did not see the point.
And so far we can tell you the story of Instagram. Of course, the social network will continue to be updated and consolidated as one of the most used. What news could they bring us? Which ones would you like?