The app includes some AI features and the ability to post directly to Instagram or Facebook. The tab was later expanded again in November 2016 after Instagram Live launched to display an algorithmically curated page of the “best” Instagram Live videos currently airing. In June 2012, Instagram introduced “Explore”, a tab inside the app that displays popular photos, photos taken at nearby locations, and search. Instagram encourages users to make tags both specific and relevant, rather than tagging generic words like “photo”, to make photographs stand out and to attract like-minded Instagram users. In April 2018, Instagram launched its version of a portrait mode called “focus mode”, which gently blurs the background of a photo or video while keeping the subject in focus when selected. The feature originally limited photos to the square format, but received an update in August to enable portrait and landscape photos instead.
Instagram said the algorithm was designed so that users would see more of the photos by users that they liked, but there was significant negative feedback, with many users asking their followers to turn on post notifications in order to make sure they see updates. In October 2015, it released Boomerang, a video app that combines photos into short, one-second videos that play back-and-forth in a loop. In July 2014, it released Bolt, a messaging app where users click on a friend’s profile photo to quickly send an image, with the content disappearing after being seen. In October 2013, Instagram announced that https://www.cuscocasinoonline.nl/ video and image ads would soon appear in feeds for users in the United States, with the first image advertisements displaying on November 1, 2013. In December 2024, Instagram announced that it was trialing a feature designed to help users reconnect with content they may have missed from their mutual followers.

• 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.
• The policy change and its backlash caused competing photo services to use the opportunity to “try to lure users away” by promoting their privacy-friendly services, and some services experienced substantial gains in momentum and user growth following the news.
• In December 2024, Instagram announced that it was trialing a feature designed to help users reconnect with content they may have missed from their mutual followers.
• Britain’s Office of Fair Trading approved the deal on August 14, 2012, and on August 22, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission in the U.S. closed its investigation, allowing the deal to proceed.
• In March 2021, a feature was added that prevents adults from messaging users under 18 who do not follow them as part of a series of new child safety policies.
• In November 2019, it was announced that Instagram would start to roll out a new feature to Brazil known as Instagram Reels.
• The developer, Google, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below.

Google Photos: Backup & Edit

The Android version of Instagram was released in April 2012, followed by a feature-limited desktop interface in November 2012, a Fire OS app in June 2014, an app for Windows 10 in October 2016, and an app for iPadOS in September 2025. This renaming gave an even bigger response, it rapidly gained popularity, reaching 1 million registered users in two months, 10 million in a year, and 1 billion in June 2018. The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports.

• This setting can be changed to allow unlimited messages from other accounts that the user does not follow.
• In July 2014, it released Bolt, a messaging app where users click on a friend’s profile photo to quickly send an image, with the content disappearing after being seen.
• In December, the company began rolling out the abilities for users to turn off the comments and, for private accounts, remove followers.
• 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.
• Mackson et al. 2019 found users were less lonely than non-users and Instagram membership predicts lower self-reported loneliness.

Internal data from Meta

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. Users can also view statistics on their videos and see other user’s videos that are trending in the Inspiration tab.
In June 2021, Instagram launched a native affiliate marketing tool creators can use to earn commissions based on sales. In April 2019, Instagram added the option to “Checkout on Instagram”, which allows merchants to sell products directly through the Instagram app. In February 2016, Instagram announced that it had 200,000 advertisers on the platform. In June 2014, Instagram announced the rollout of ads in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, with ads starting to roll out that autumn.

App support

In August, Instagram announced that it would start organizing comments into threads, letting users more easily interact with replies. Users can connect their Instagram account to other social networking sites, enabling them to share uploaded photos to those sites. This change became permanent and system wide a year later, and now hashtags can only be used to see a selection of curated content from “top” users.
While Instagram has a neutral gender-bias format, 68% of Instagram users are female and 32% are male. As of 2014update, Instagram’s users are divided equally, with 50% iPhone owners and 50% Android owners. This increased to 150 million in January 2017, 200 million in April, surpassing Snapchat’s user growth, and 250 million active users in June 2017. In October 2016, Instagram Stories reached 100 million active users, two months after launch.
Instagram was one of the last freely available global social media sites in Iran. The Cuban government blocked access to several social media platforms, including Instagram, to curb the spread of information during the 2021 Cuban protests. Instagram has been blocked by China following the 2014 Hong Kong protests as many confrontations with police and incidents occurring during the protests were recorded and photographed. The Iranian government offered moderators bribes up to $9,000 to delete specific accounts, with Masih Alinejad being targeted in particular.
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 incidents have led to a #FreetheNipple campaign, aimed at challenging Instagram’s removal of photos displaying women’s nipples. In October 2013, Instagram deleted the account of Canadian photographer Petra Collins after she posted a photo of herself in which a very small area of pubic hair was visible above the top of her bikini bottom. In 2019, Facebook announced that influencers are no longer able to post any vape, tobacco products, and weapons promotions on Facebook and Instagram. Instagram has been the subject of criticism due to users publishing images of drugs they are selling on the platform. 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.
Their study showed presence of depressive symptoms in a user could positively predict they would post. Khodarahimi & Fathi 2017 found evidence users displayed higher levels of depressive and anxious symptoms compared to non-users. 13% of British and 6% of American teenager users with suicidal thoughts could trace them to Instagram use.

Content ownership

The trends deemed the most popular on the platform often highlight a specific day of the week to post the material on. Users can set their account as “private”, thereby requiring that they approve any new follower requests. 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.

TikTok – Videos, Music & LIVE

Users report higher body surveillance (habitual monitoring of one’s shape and size), appearance-related pressure, eating-disorder-related-pathology and lower body satisfaction than non-users. In a 2021 study, Mun & Kim pointed out users with a strong need for approval were more likely to falsely present themselves, which increased the likelihood of depression. The first interviewed 15 monthly Californian instagram users with low body image and self esteem, aged 13-21.

YouTube Music

In July 2022, Instagram announced a set of updates which immediately received widespread backlash from its userbase. The policy update also introduced an arbitration clause, which remained even after the language pertaining to advertising and user content had been modified. In September 2024, Meta paid out a $101 million fine for storing up to 600 million passwords of Instagram and Facebook users in plain text. In August 2017, reports surfaced that a bug in Instagram’s developer tools had allowed “one or more individuals” to gain access to the contact information, specifically email addresses and phone numbers, of several high-profile verified accounts, including its most followed user, Selena Gomez. The video only contained fan-submitted Instagram photographs that used various filters to represent words or lyrics from the song, and over 1,200 different photographs were submitted. On August 9, 2012, English musician Ellie Goulding released a new music video for her song “Anything Could Happen”.
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.