What It Is, Its History, and How the Popular App Works

Since its beginnings in 2010, Instagram has evolved as a photo-sharing app to become a social media powerhouse with 2 billion monthly active users worldwide. While Instagram started as a platform for sharing personal moments and filtered photos, it has transformed into an essential business tool used by both small startups and Fortune 500 companies for marketing, customer engagement, and direct commerce.

History and Growth

Instagram was originally conceived as Burbn, a location-based check-in platform created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Realizing how photo-sharing was growing in popularity, they pivoted their focus and renamed the app Instagram, a portmanteau of “instant camera” and “telegram.”

Instagram launched in October 2010 and immediately gained traction, amassing about 25,000 users on its first day. Its focus on mobile photo sharing and its suite of image-enhancing filters quickly brought users on board. Within three months, Instagram had already surpassed one million users.

Instagram expanded at a breakneck pace. By April 2012, Instagram was acquired by Facebook, now Meta Platforms, Inc. (META), for $1 billion, just a month before Facebook’s initial public offering. The new funding accelerated Instagram’s development, and soon it was part of a broader ecosystem of social media products. Today, Instagram has more than 2 billion active users.

Below is a timeline of the major changes to the platform over time:

Key Features of Instagram

Instagram’s success lies in how it blends visual storytelling and user-friendly features. Here are the major aspects of the platform today:

Visual-First Approach 

Instagram’s foundation remains its visual-centric nature, now enhanced with immersive features. The platform has expanded beyond static images to embrace audio and video through Stories and Reels, offering users diverse ways to share their narratives while keeping Meta competitive with TikTok.

Reels

As Instagram’s answer to short-form video content, Reels has become a primary engagement driver. Key aspects include the following:

• 60-second clips with interactive elements
• Augmented reality (AR) filters for enhanced creativity
• Live product tagging for seamless shopping
• Reel replies, which let businesses respond with video demonstrations

Interactive Features 

Instagram has pushed forward some notable community-building tools:

• Interactive polls in Reels for audience engagement
• Global communication support with translation features
• Content testing capabilities through trial reels
• Improved messaging features for direct communication

AI Integration

The platform’s signature filters and editing capabilities have evolved into tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Users can access features like “Movie Gen,” which enables dramatic video transformations through text prompts—from altering clothing to backgrounds or converting videos into animated styles. Users can also employ AI for the following:

• Automated performance insights
• Optimizing content visibility
• Image-to-video conversion

Instagram for Business

Instagram is an essential marketing and sales platform for many businesses. With improvements in profile features, companies can now offer immersive AR product demonstrations, use Meta’s AI to predict trends, and employ Instagram Shopping to integrate e-commerce possibilities. Detailed analytics provide crucial data on audience demographics, content performance, and engagement rates, while newer ad formats help target specific audiences.

Content Strategy and Engagement

The platform rewards content that drives meaningful interaction, with carousel posts and reels typically generating higher engagement rates. Strategic hashtag use remains crucial, with popular tags like “#Love” garnering over 2 billion posts.

Navigating Algorithm Changes

Brands using Instagram face the challenge of an ever-evolving algorithm. The algorithm that determines content visibility isn’t one-size-fits-all; Instagram uses different algorithms for feed posts, stories, the explore page, and reels. Understanding these distinctions is crucial for business success on the platform:

Feed posts:

The main feed prioritizes content based on user relationships and past interactions, engagement rates (likes, comments, saves, and shares), content relevance to user interests, and recency.

Instagram has placed renewed emphasis on photo content in the main feed following Instagram leader Adam Mosseri’s announcement about rebalancing content types. This shift is a time for brands to diversify their content strategy beyond just video. 

“This is definitely a work in progress—balancing the ability to reach followers and overall engagement is tricky,” Mosseri posted on Threads, Meta’s answer to Twitter (now X). This message served as a warning for content providers: The algorithm will be changing, and if your business relies on it, you’ll need to change with it.

Stories:

Stories visibility is determined by the viewing frequency of a creator’s content, the level of interaction with the account, relationship depth (including direct messaging), and content completion rates.

Explore page:

The explore page algorithm focuses on content that receives high engagement (particularly saves and shares), posts that align with users’ demonstrated interests, trending topics and hashtags within specific niches, and location relevance

Reels:

For reels, the algorithm prioritizes the following watch time and completion rates, user engagement patterns, audio track popularity, and content originality.

The Bottom Line

Instagram’s transformation from a simple photo-sharing app to a global commerce and communication platform reflects broader shifts in how businesses connect with consumers. Through AI-powered features, enhanced shopping capabilities, and sophisticated analytics, Instagram has become an essential tool in modern business.

While challenges exist—from algorithm changes to content saturation—Instagram’s ability to adapt suggests it will continue to dominate social media. For those willing to invest in authentic content creation and community engagement, Instagram will remain a place where you can connect with and convert audiences.