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. The same month, they also began testing the removal of ability to share feed posts to stories. After scrolling through posts from the past 48 hours, Instagram displays posts related to their interests from accounts they do not follow. Since its launch, only approximately 220,000 users globally downloaded the app, which represented less than 0.1% of Instagram’s monthly active users, indicating a lack of success in driving adoption. However, Instagram discontinued this version of Threads in December 2021, mainly due to most of its features being rolled out on Instagram itself, as well as low usage compared to other social media applications.
Algorithm and design changes
The Wall Street Journal reported that some parents are concerned about the 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.
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Then Instagram started rolling out a new feature with made Reels up to 90 seconds long beginning in June 2022. They are distinguished from regular content by the “sponsored” tag under the account name. Then in August of that year, Instagram introduced a reels button on the home page.
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.
Twitch: Live Streaming
According to the IFJ, Instagram is popular among Iranians because it is seen as an outlet for freedom and a “window to the world”.Still, Iran has sentenced citizens to prison for posts made on their Instagram accounts. Like many social media sites, Instagram employs a combination of automated algorithms, user reports and human review to identify and remove illegal content such as child abuse and encouragement of terrorism. In contrast, the level of agreement expressed in creating Instagram posts was lower, which demonstrates that Instagram’s emphasis on visual communication is widely accepted by young people in social communication. The motives for using Instagram among young people are mainly to look at posts, particularly for the sake of social interactions and recreation. Recently Instagram has come up with an option for users to apply for a verified account badge; however, this does not guarantee every user who applies will get the verified blue tick. From June 2012 to June 2013, Instagram approximately doubled their number of users.
The Microsoft Office app is now Microsoft 365 Copilot
In May 2017, a survey conducted by the United Kingdom’s Royal Society for Public Health, featuring 1,479 people aged 14–24 and asking them to rate social media platforms depending on anxiety, depression, loneliness, bullying and body image, concluded that Instagram was the “worst for young mental health”. On March 11, 2022, Russia announced it would ban Instagram due to alleged “calls for violence against Russian troops” on the platform during the ongoing 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Instagram was one of the last freely available global social media sites in Iran.
- These researchers found that college students in the U.S. and China watch short-form videos for entertainment, knowledge, and to build social identities.
- Mackson et al. 2019 found users were less lonely than non-users and Instagram membership predicts lower self-reported loneliness.
- Instagram has been criticized in India for not taking steps to counter homophobic and transphobic contents.
- Instagram was one of the last freely available global social media sites in Iran.
- In contrast, the level of agreement expressed in creating Instagram posts was lower, which demonstrates that Instagram’s emphasis on visual communication is widely accepted by young people in social communication.
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. Instagram verifies accounts based on its own discretion, and not all accounts meeting the criteria may be verified. This marked a significant shift from the previous system where verification was typically initiated by Instagram itself for accounts it deemed to be of public interest or high-profile. Instagram introduced a verification feature, known as the blue verified badge, in December 2014.
- Internet users who make less than $30,000 per year use Instagram, while 14% of those making $30,000 to $50,000 and 12% of users who make more than $50,000 per year do so.
- AI is built into the Office apps you know and trust.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
IGTV allows uploads of up to 10 minutes in length with a file size of up to 650 MB, with verified and popular users allowed to upload videos of up to one hour in length with a file size of up to 5.4 GB. Instagram offers a number of photographic filters that users can apply to their images. Now, users are only able to see a curated selection of “popular” posts using a given hashtag.
According to Instagram, they pushed forward the launch of Co-Watching in order to meet the demand for virtually connecting with friends and family due to social distancing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. On October 1, 2018, it was announced that Adam Mosseri would be the new head of Instagram. On September 24, 2018, Krieger and Systrom announced in a statement they would be stepping down from Instagram. The app remains available on Windows 10 0xbet computers and tablets, also updated to a PWA in 2020. On April 30, 2019, the Windows 10 Mobile app was discontinued, though the mobile website remains available as a progressive web application (PWA) with limited functionality.
Ongoing research continues to explore how media content on the platform affects user engagement. Following behind, college graduates consist of 18% and users with a high school diploma or less make up 15%. Internet users who make less than $30,000 per year use Instagram, while 14% of those making $30,000 to $50,000 and 12% of users who make more than $50,000 per year do so.
It helps users easily identify legitimate accounts amidst the vast number of profiles on the platform. In June 2017, Instagram revised its live-video functionality to allow users to add their live broadcast to their story for availability in the next 24 hours, or discard the broadcast immediately. In May 2017, Instagram expanded the augmented reality sticker feature to support face filters, letting users add specific visual features onto their faces. 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. A new update in November 2016 let users make their private messages “disappear” after being viewed by the recipient, with the sender receiving a notification if the recipient takes a screenshot.
2019: IGTV, removal of the like counter, management changes
Microsoft launched a Hyperlapse app for Android and Windows in May 2015, but there has been no official Hyperlapse app from Instagram for either of these platforms to date. In March 2015, Instagram announced it would implement “carousel ads”, allowing advertisers to display multiple images with options for linking to additional content. Users can apply for verification through Instagram’s settings, but the decision to grant verification ultimately rests with Instagram’s team.Meta (formerly Facebook) launched paid verification on Instagram in 2021. Meta stated that the test would initially reach a limited number of users, with plans for a global rollout depending on feedback. By doing so, users can easily access curated Stories from the past week that they might not have seen previously.
In February 2023, Instagram introduced a new feature allowing users to browse and post GIFs in their comments. Similar to Snapchat, the app allowed users to communicate through messaging and video chats. Following the change, after viewing a number of posts a pop-up requires the user to log in to continue viewing content. Instagram later restricted the ability to view public profiles without logging in, prompting users to sign in after viewing a limited number of posts.
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”.
The developer, Instagram, Inc., indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below.
