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. 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 application was shut down and removed from app stores in March 2022, citing low usage and a shift to short-form video content. Users can take photos and edit them using built-in filters and other tools, then share them on other social media platforms like Facebook. Instagrama is an American photo and short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. In July 2022, Instagram announced a set of updates which immediately received widespread backlash from its userbase.
In April 2024, Instagram announced that they would start testing new tools «within weeks» to fight sextortion, a form of blackmail involving intimate pictures sent online. In December 2023, Instagram launched a podcast titled «Close Friends Only» featuring conversations among celebrities. Also in February 2023, Zuckerberg announced that Meta would start selling blue «verified» badges on Instagram and Facebook. In September 2022, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission fined the company $402 million under privacy laws recently adopted by the European Union over how it handled the privacy data of minors. 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. In February 2021, Instagram began testing a new feature called Vertical Stories, said by some sources to be inspired by TikTok.
The company will put suggested posts ahead of posts from people who the user is following in the Instagram feed, citing positive reception as the reason for this change. On June 23, 2021, Instagram announced a test change to the «suggested posts» feature. Since 2017, Instagram has employed the ability to reduce the prominence of accounts («shadowbanning») it believes may be generating non-genuine engagement and spam (including excessive use of unneeded hashtags), preventing posts from appearing in search results and in the app’s Explore section. However, in December 2021, Adam Mosseri, in a Senate hearing on child safety issues, stated that the company is developing a version of the feed that would show user posts in chronological order. In May 2016, Instagram launched new tools for business accounts, including business profiles, analytics and the ability to promote posts as ads.
Create an image
In November 2018, Instagram added the ability for business accounts to add product links directing users to a purchase page or to save them to a «shopping list». The new analytics page, known as Instagram Insights, allowed business accounts to view top posts, reach, impressions, engagement and demographic data. The company launched carousel image ads in October 2015, and video carousel ads in March 2016. Paid verification allowed eligible Instagram users to request verification for their accounts via paying a fee, rather than relying solely on meeting the platform’s traditional criteria for verification.
Similar apps
A camera inside Direct lets users take a photo and send it to the recipient without leaving the conversation. The feature received a major update in September 2015, adding conversation threading and making it possible for users to share locations, hashtag pages, and profiles through private messages directly from the news feed. These researchers found that college students in the U.S. and China watch short-form videos for entertainment, knowledge, and to build social identities. A Meta spokesperson explained, «We have fixed an error that caused some users to see content in their Instagram Reels feed that should not have been recommended. We apologize for the mistake.» Despite the «TikTokification» of Reels and the parent company Meta spending millions on courting content creators, user engagement continued to lag way behind TikTok as of 2022.
Turn ideas into polished content
Subsequent episodes in June and August 2024 featured Reneé Rapp, Rachel Sennott, Megan Thee Stallion and GloRilla. These changes are ostensibly an attempt to hinder the spread of misinformation, while Instagram has also repeatedly stated that hashtags do not help posts get views. In April 2022, Instagram began testing the removal of the ability to see «recent» posts from various hashtags. In May 2021, Instagram began allowing users in some regions to add pronouns to their profile page. In March 2021, Instagram launched a new feature in which four people can go live at once. In August 2020, Instagram began a pivot to video, introducing a new feature called «Reels».
- AI is built into the Office apps you know and trust.
- The motives for using Instagram among young people are mainly to look at posts, particularly for the sake of social interactions and recreation.
- Users can now only receive one direct message from accounts that they do not follow, and must approve the message request before further messages can be sent.
- Instagram said that this is to prevent abuse and so that hashtags do not help users gain views, but it has been noted that using hashtags is the only free method for a user to reach past their existing followers.
- Although the U.S. government has little direct power to force social media sites to remove specific content, Instagram has on occasion done so voluntarily, especially to avoid being seen as aiding the spread of fake news.
- She said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in September 2013 that the company should be ready to begin selling advertising by September 2014 as a way to generate business from a popular entity that had not yet created profit for its parent company.
- Then, the following month, Reels officially launched in 50 countries including the United States, Canada and United Kingdom.
July 2022 updates
The feature allows users to verify their accounts to confirm their authenticity.Instagram began allowing users to request verification for their accounts in August 2018. Importantly, this feature will only display Story Highlights—curated collections of Stories saved by users—rather than standard Stories that disappear 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. In September 2024, Instagram added a sticker editor which allows users to cut out elements of photos and send them privately.
Also in July 2019, Instagram announced that it would implement new features designed to reduce harassment and negative comments on the service. 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.» It has been argued that low numbers of likes in relativity to others could contribute to a lower self-esteem in users. 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.
After the update (which is rolled out to a segment of the user base) the Instagram Direct icon transforms into Facebook Messenger icon. Meta issued a public apology, stating that a technical error led to the unintended recommendation of such content. Confirming ‘lurking’, this study found that those who use Reels for peeking neither created any content nor participated, instead they were only keen on watching others content. The research findings suggested that user motivations and socio-psychological predictors influence people’s usage behaviours with Instagram Reels. This study identified seven motivations behind Reels usage; socially rewarding self-promotion, entertainment, escape, surveillance, novelty, documentation, and trendiness. After a period of testing, a duration of up to three minutes was announced in January 2025.
The tool used color analysis, metadata components, and face detection of users’ feeds. In 2015, Instagram was named No. 1 by Mashable on its list of «The 100 best iPhone apps of all time», noting Instagram as «one of the most influential social networks in the world.» Instagram was listed among Time’s «50 Best Android Applications for 2013» list. In the U.S., there is relatively little government regulation of social media content, with most content removal taking place on a voluntary basis by the companies. On March 14, the ban took effect, with almost 80 million users losing access to Instagram.
- On December 20, Instagram announced that the advertising section of the policy would be reverted to its original October 2010 version.
- In September 2011, a new version of the app included new and live filters, instant tilt–shift, high-resolution photographs, optional borders, one-click rotation, and an updated icon.
- The app automatically begins playing videos as soon as it is launched, which CEO Kevin Systrom contrasted to video hosts where one must first locate a video.
- In August 2020, Instagram began a pivot to video, introducing a new feature called «Reels».
- Instagram-based activism (as well as other social media) has been criticized and dismissed for being performative, reductionist, and overly focused on aesthetics.
In May 2021, Instagram announced a new accessibility feature for videos on Instagram Reels and Stories to allow creators to place closed captions on their content. Since February 2017, up to ten pictures or videos can be included in a single post, with the content appearing as a swipeable carousel. 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 as a way to limit the «emergent behavior» of deleting photos, which deprives the service of content. The feature was updated in April 2017 to let users organize saved posts into named collections. Users can upload photographs and short videos, follow other users’ feeds, and geotag images with the name of a location.
In June 2018, the daily active story users of Instagram had reached 400 million users, and monthly active users had reached 1 billion active users. 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. This setting can be changed to allow unlimited messages from other accounts that the user does not follow.
In July 2021, Instagram temporarily censored videos with the phrase «death to Khamenei». Sometimes the phrase «Chinese Instagram» is used to refer to Xiaohongshu, a competitor social media app which is not to be confused with Instagram. Digital rights groups such as 7amleh and Access Now argue that the removal of Palestinian content reflects broader issues of digital discrimination and have called for greater transparency from social media platforms. Instagram denied intentional censorship and attributed the deletion of Palestinian posts to glitches. On January 2020, after the Assassination of Qasem Soleimani by the United States, Instagram removed posts expressing support for General Soleimani. However, this statement has also been called into question due to other apps with more explicit content allowed on the store, the lack of consequences for men exposing their bodies on Instagram, and for inconsistent treatment of what constitutes inappropriate exposure of the female body.
The developer, Instagram, Inc., indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below.
The Wall Street Journal reported that some parents are concerned about the 0xbet effects of short-form videos on their children, as there is no way to disable Instagram or set limits. Researchers from the Guizhou University of Finance and Economics and Western Michigan University found that short-form videos like YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram Reels may make it easier for young adults and children to develop addictive behavior because short-form videos provide «short bursts of thrills». The number of monthly users also increased from 1.5 billion in 2022 to 1.8 billion as of 2024.