What is Instagram? Instagram Review, Features

Instagram (Photo Wall) is an application that provides online photo sharing, video sharing and social networking services. It is a social application running on mobile terminals that shares the pictures you take at any time on various social networks in a fast, beautiful and interesting way.

About Instagram

The name Instagram comes from Instamatic, a line of low-cost, portable point-and-shoot cameras that Kodak began selling in 1963. The series was so popular that the last model was still on sale as late as 1988.

Instagram is a mobile application that supports iOS, Windows Phone, and Android platforms. It allows users to capture their life memories in any environment, select the filter style of the picture (more than 10 kinds of rubber circle effects such as Lomo/Nashville/Apollo/Poprocket), and share it to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare, or Sina Weibo with one click. Not only taking pictures, as a lightweight but very interesting app, Instagram has integrated many social elements into the mobile terminal, including the establishment of friendships, replies, sharing, and collections, which is the greatest value of Instagram as a service rather than an application.

Key Features

1. Traditional functions: Instagram provides a smooth operation process: take a photo - filter effects (more than 10 photo effects, mainly Lomo style) - add description/add location - share (can be shared to mainstream social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, Foursquare, and even Sina Weibo). At the same time, Instagram has established a micro community based on these photos, where users can interact with other users through operations such as following, commenting, and liking.

2. Video function: Live on Instagram: Just tap the camera icon and swipe to the "live" tab and tap the "start Live video" button. When recording a video using Facebook Live, an icon will appear at the top of the screen showing that you are live and how many people are watching. Users can comment and send "heart" to express their love for the video. Those who follow your fans and interact with you in the video will see a notification showing that you are live, just like they see on Facebook.

Key Benefits

1. Low threshold for participation (internal factors): Mobile device-based applications allow people to participate more conveniently, which means that users can abandon traditional SLRs or even compact cameras (usually after taking photos with a camera, we need to upload them to a computer, process them, and then upload them to the Web, which is a cumbersome process). Instagram, based on mobile devices, allows users to enjoy the fun of taking photos and uploading them immediately, allowing users to share the joy of life with friends anytime, anywhere; Instagram provides 11 classic and interesting special effects styles to make users' mediocre photos look more interesting, and users do not need to use Photoshop, but these special effects are enough to create "amazing" works. Instagram makes it possible for "civilian artists".

2. Community interaction based on time fragments (internal factors): Instagram builds the entire community on the App rather than the Web (Instagram's official website only provides simple login, picture display and app download). Compared with Web products that are mainly conducted indoors, Instagram's community can be filled in any fragment of users' time, such as waiting for the bus, partying, walking, driving or even going to the bathroom. Users no longer have to worry about whether their friends have replied to newly uploaded pictures, nor will they miss the latest feeds of their friends.

3. Taking advantage of the situation (external factors): Sharing on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr and Foursquare is not considered innovative, but it has brought the unknown Instagram to people's attention through more channels. By taking advantage of the relatively mature user relationships of Twitter, Facebook and Flickr, the first batch of Instagram users will not be lonely, and Instagram can import more relevant friends to create a community atmosphere. And through the above social media channels, Instagram can also spread among the crowd at the shortest speed without spending huge promotion costs.

Instagram removed from Chinese app store

According to Techinasia, Facebook's photo-sharing app Instagram has mysteriously disappeared from China's mainstream Android app stores.

Instagram has disappeared from the five major Android application platforms, Baidu, Xiaomi, Qihoo 360, Tencent, and 91 Wireless. It is unknown when the app was first removed. However, the disappearance of Instagram is limited to the Android platform. Instagram can still be searched in Apple's Chinese App Store. In addition, a user who previously downloaded the Android version of Instagram revealed that the app can still run normally.

Facebook and WhatsApp, both products of Facebook, can still be downloaded on China's Android app platform, and WhatsApp can still run as usual.

Techinasia speculates that the mysterious disappearance of Instagram from the Android platform may be related to Facebook's opening of an office in China. After Facebook opens an office in China, it will undoubtedly provide international advertising platform services mainly for Chinese corporate users, just like Google's China office.

Main development history

-In October 2010, Instagram officially launched on the App Store, and the number of users subsequently grew rapidly. Just one week after its launch, Instagram had 100,000 registered users.

-In January 2012, then-US President Barack Obama used Instagram.

-On April 10, 2012, Facebook announced the acquisition of Instagram for $1 billion.

-On October 25, 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram for a total value of US$715 million.

-In December 2012, Instagram, a photo-sharing service owned by Facebook, caused an uproar on the Internet due to its new terms of use of the photo-sharing service. Instagram clarified that it would not use or sell users' photos in advertisements, thus allaying users' concerns.

-On October 22, 2013, Nokia announced that Instagram would enter the Windows Phone market, and on November 21, Instagram officially landed on the Windows Phone 8 platform.

-On March 26, 2014, Facebook announced that the monthly active users of its photo-sharing service Instagram had exceeded 200 million.

-On December 10, 2015, Apple released the list of "Best Apps in the App Store" for 2015, and Instagram won the "Best iPhone 6S App".

-On December 13, 2016, Instagram's Live feature was officially opened to all users in the United States.

-On October 23, 2018, Instagram launched a nametag that allows people to quickly follow other people in real life.

-In December 2018, the World Brand Lab released the list of "Top 500 World Brands 2018", and Instagram ranked 362nd.