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The addition was seen by some in the technology media as Facebook’s attempt at competing with the then-popular video-sharing application Vine. Instagram offers a number of photographic filters that users can apply to their images. In December 2017, Instagram began to allow users to follow hashtags, which display relevant highlights of the topic in their feeds. In January 2011, Instagram introduced hashtags to help users discover both photos and each other. In August, Instagram announced that it would start organizing comments into threads, letting users more easily interact with replies.

• These posts are contained within a user’s profile and may be displayed publicly within Instagram or privately to the user’s followers.
• Users are more likely to engage with images that depict fewer individuals compared to groups and they are also more likely to engage with content that has not been watermarked, as they view this content as less original and reliable compared to user-generated content.
• In June 2012, Instagram introduced «Explore», a tab inside the app that displays popular photos, photos taken at nearby locations, and search.
• Users can set their account as «private», thereby requiring that they approve any new follower requests.
• In December 2017, Instagram began to allow users to follow hashtags, which display relevant highlights of the topic in their feeds.

The second recruited 10 monthly users for a 5-day diary study, where they recorded their online habits. The first interviewed 15 monthly Californian Instagram users with low body image and self esteem, aged 13–21. Instagram has since been accused of extending the practice to censor posts under vague and inconsistent circumstances, particularly in regards to sexually suggestive material. In a now-deleted Facebook post, Instagram wrote that «When developing content, we recommend focusing on your business objective or goal rather than hashtags». In April 2016, Instagram began rolling out a change to the order of photos visible in a user’s timeline, shifting from a strictly chronological order to one determined by an algorithm. 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 February 2016, Instagram announced that it had 200,000 advertisers on the platform. The company launched carousel image ads in October 2015, and video carousel ads in March 2016. In March 2015, Instagram announced it would implement «carousel ads», allowing advertisers to display multiple images with options for linking to additional content. By doing so, users can easily access curated Stories from the past week that they might not have seen previously. 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.

In May 2016, Instagram launched new tools for business accounts, including business profiles, analytics and the ability to promote posts as ads. Meta stated that the test would initially reach a limited number of users, with plans for a global rollout depending on feedback. In May 2017, Instagram expanded the augmented reality sticker feature to support face filters, letting users add specific visual features onto their faces. In January 2017, Instagram launched skippable ads, where five-second photo and 15-second video ads appear in-between different stories. In September 2024, Instagram added a sticker editor which allows users to cut out elements of photos and send them privately.

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Note that while you cannot view Instagram stories in hidden mode, you can create a best friends list. Of course, don’t forget to tag a location and add hashtags and a brief description to boost your content’s visibility massively. What’s more, if you need to, you’ll also be able to retouch specific parameters of your photos, such as brightness, saturation, contrast, or proportions. Instagram has a built-in editor that lets you easily touch up your photos.

User behavior

Not available to users who have already tried Premium. For Stories, users are able to send emoji-based reactions or reply by private message. Users are able to “follow” each other, with all of the accounts one is following being aggregated into a single feed. It is also possible to go “live,” streaming video directly from a camera to the platform. Less than three months later it had one million users, a phenomenal achievement.

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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 জায়া৯ launch. After being released in October 2010, Instagram had one million registered users in December 2010.

In February 2026, Meta announced a new safety feature on Instagram that will alert parents if their teenage children repeatedly search for content related to suicide or self‑harm, as part of expanded parental supervision tools amid legal scrutiny of its impact on youth. 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. After scrolling through posts from the past 48 hours, Instagram displays endless 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. 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.