The desire to be seen and be heard and explore things in life is a never dying phenomena for the human race. This has been tried across different value parameters and experimented with different communication themes over time. And now digital platforms are becoming the medium and contributing to this need of people. These platforms are ceaselessly experimenting with different entities of technology and communication and using a combination of these as a tool to connect people with ever better possibilities and ever attractive traits of digital communication landscape. One such thing that happened to us is Instagram – best of such things to be precise – allowing us to boast our photos and relish other users’ sights.
This platform is necessarily that one place where you don’t just get to see those picky head shots or rare scenic beauties but also filter and make them appear in a certain way using themes and tools that change the way things look. And quite literally almost all of it.
How big is Instagram?
Instagram is now that one fine platform that is used as a photo filtering and sharing digital machine (or call it a photography tool) – a social media app that has 400 million active users across the globe as of now. And these avid users share about 80 million images and video files each day. Yeah, every damn day! 80 million! And to that, 90% of world’s leading brands (in any sphere or segment) have their accounts on Instagram. Well.And these numbers are growing with each passing day!
This is how big Instagram is! And people want to connect with this idea not just by putting up a selfie on it but to a level that makes them an owner of something Instagramish! According to a daily, already a number of web entrepreneurs and budding professionals have shown their interest in having their own such app but they are equally reluctant because of the ignorance and confusion that pull them back. They are not having all the details about the app that help them take a step further.
Developing an app like Instagram
So, with our mobile app development experience and industry-wide insight that we have gained over time, we take this as a chance to communicate and share our idea on how to make an app like Instagram. And hope that helps you a lot with the decision.
Well, to start with,you need to first understand the length and depth of features and characteristics that such an application holds. Let’s first pull all things together in one easy definition.
‘Instagram is essentially an online photo sharing and social network platform that allows users to upload, edit and share photos with connected or other members within and beyond the channel’.
This explains an app like Instagram in a shell. To develop an app like it right and aim it to be as effective, you need to understand it further and know it up-close, tallying its core components and features and measuring the depth of its functional coverage. Which would allow you to know what all efforts and inputs go into it.
Also Read: How Much Does It Cost to Develop an App?
Key Features of an App like Instagram
- Account authorization with Email, Facebook or Phone number
- Create and edit a user profile, to add info about yourself
- Send photos or videos to individuals or groups
- Use digital filters and modification tools to customize photos
- Integrate the account with social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr etc.
- Follow users and build a network
- Like and comment on photos posted by friends and other users
- Exchange messages among friends
- Search using parameters like username, hashtag, popular post, and location
- Tag photos to a specific location using geo tagging feature
Get inspired by others in the vertical
A typical Instagram like app is built around these features. You can enhance it to deliver more engagement options and resource capabilities to your users by adding relevant enhancements – making it further richer in terms of performance and reception value. These are a few apps from where you get inspired to make your app deliver and engage better:
Flickr: Flickr allows users to create albums rather than just letting them add photos. So, you can work on creating memories – clubbing all similar photos and series of pictures together in one binder and refer to them as your treasured reminiscences.
WeHeartIt: WHI offers keyword-rich search across different categories like shop, colors, spring, friendship, which stress more on an inspirational and creative theme rather than encouraging users to just do a self-fixated social update.
Swipe: It is essentially a video library allowing you to quickly watch the selective bits and fully immersed videos across different channels. It also uses the Tinder-like swipe feature to allow you to like or dislike the content you see.
EyeEm: This platform gets a bit professional and is meant for those who have that flair of picking delectable photographs with their high-definition cameras. If you are lucky, your photo may be spotted by an agency or brand and you may get paid for your artistic efforts.
How to monetize an app like Instagram?
Building an app like Instagram can pay you well if you find effective ways to monetize it. Among many options that best suit to this kind of a venture the most favorable ones appear to be Native Ads, In-App Purchases, Selling Stock Photos, Running Paid Contests, or maybe Reserved Frames and Dedicated High point Layouts.
Native Ads: Here native ads mean that the company or the brand presenting ads is maintaining its profile like other users and posting pictures on it. Here, users are able to follow them and like the photos posted by them. These posts are also seen in the social feeds as sponsored ads.
In-App Purchases: Allow users to purchase additional tools or filters or any added facility or access to allow them having leading edge over the free features.
Selling stock photos: You can stock photos and act as a marketplace platform allowing agencies and creators to buy and sell their photographic work.
Running Paid Contests: Engage your users into paid photography competitions based on different themes. Get sponsors from different fields to support all those different themes and categories.
Reserved Frames and Layouts: Allow users to register themselves and place their profiles and photos up in the stack or find a more visible or privileged spot to be seen and approached better.
Also Read: How to Monetize your Video Sharing App with Ads?
Important things to keep in mind while building an app like Instagram
- Thoroughly research on market trends and business possibilities and create a comprehensive report analyzing the requirement for resources and facilities to help you conceptualize, design, build, promote, scale-up and maintain the app.
- Prepare for the ad operations and teaser campaigns several months before you actually launch the app. This will allow you to explore and strategize your launch looking at the market tendencies and sensing the pre-launch vibes to mold user response well in your favor.
- Don’t forget to plan and conduct a reward program for early users and set schemes and provisions for them to multiply your reach and trigger more publicity and bring in more people to use your app.
- Always try to strike some uniqueness with the way you communicate with users or allow them to use your product. Be creative in your approach and offer them a theme and host of features that provide you a leading edge over competitors.
- Tie up with platforms and seek support from influencers in the field. Make sure you are promoted and talked high in front of the users. This should go well in your favor to support your communication and promotion activities with the target audiences.
- First, develop an MVP and test it internally in the Beta phase and only let it out when you are convinced with the performance and have a high rating from all the quality testing methods. Steadily expand your app to a higher design following the concept framework and utility matrix you approve to and are sure of in every manner.
- Make sure the interface design you are going with is uniquely attractive and user-friendly and the theme you put up with perfectly complements your brand identity and the core purpose, the app is meant to serve and communicate.
Closure
Building an app like Instagram is not a challenge if you approach it with enough commitment and passion. Just draw a roadmap first and frame your approach to achieve a certain design built on features that fit with your brand proposition. Most of all it should be collectively presenting your idea as a complete product that is able to strike a connection with users just like Instagram does – and you will be not far from your slice of success!