Earlier this week, Instagram celebrated its 14th birthday – anyone else feel super old? From Gangnam Style to the Ice Bucket Challenge, Brexit to Covid, a lot has happened since 2010. Instagram has been there through it all, growing from a basic photo sharing app to a platform that invented hashtags with over two billion active monthly users. But how has the app changed over the years? Join us as we take a trip down memory lane...
Logo switch ups
Instagram’s first-ever logo was a nod to the past – a Polaroid instant camera that gave the app a cool, vintage vibe. But as good as it looked, it didn’t exactly pop in the crowded App Store lineup, so it didn’t stick around for long.
Credit: Cole Rise
Enter redesign number one: inspired by a retro 1950s Bell & Howell camera. While it wasn’t too different from the OG, it did swap out the clunky ‘INST’ wordmark for a more elegant serif font, turning it into the snappier ‘Insta’. Way easier to say and remember, right?
Credit: Cole Rise
But the real game-changer came in 2016 when Instagram revealed its now-iconic gradient logo (let’s be honest, we all hated it at first). Suddenly, Instagram wasn’t just a photo-sharing app anymore—it was a full-blown community hub, packed with creators, videos, and fresh content formats. The old logo just wasn’t cutting it, especially with new rivals like Snapchat and TikTok on the rise. Then in 2022, we got the latest logo update with that slick 3D gradient effect we all know today.
Content evolution
As we mentioned, Instagram didn’t stay a simple photo-sharing app for long. In 2016, they shook things up with ‘Stories’ – and let’s just say, Snapchat wasn’t thrilled about it (yep, IG totally copied them). Then, in August 2020, with TikTok taking the world by storm, Instagram responded with ‘Reels’ to join the short-video craze. So while they may not win awards for originality, they sure know how to keep up with the fast-changing social media world!
Even now in 2024, Instagram’s still rolling out fresh updates to keep us all hooked – new fonts, fun stickers and even music for your profile. You can read all about those in our other recent blog.
Influencers
It’s almost impossible to scroll through Instagram without seeing an influencer – many of which have huge followings. But the idea of ‘fandoms’ outdates Instagram and can largely be credited to early social platforms like Tumblr and YouTube, where friends became ‘followers’ and suddenly, everyone had a fan club. By the time Instagram entered the scene in 2010, the follower model was already in full swing.
So why did creators flock to Instagram to build a following? Well, Instagram’s focus on photos (and later videos) meant popular users, such as fashion bloggers or early YouTubers, could engage with their existing followers in a fun, creative and easy-to-digest way. As their followers grew, many brands saw this as an opportunity to initiate partnerships, and so, the Instagram influencer was born.
Instagram’s best bits
No Instagram recap would be complete without highlighting some of the most iconic posts that have taken over our feeds through the years. Let’s take a look…
Remember that time when an egg literally broke the internet? In 2019, Instagram’s most-liked photo wasn’t from a celebrity – it was literally just a plain old egg. The account @world_record_egg set out with one simple goal: to steal the crown of most-liked photo from Kylie Jenner’s baby announcement. The mission quickly gained momentum, and the egg now has 61 million likes. It was only beaten in 2022 by Lionel Messi celebrating winning the World Cup with Argentina.
2. Kim Kardashian being Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian is the queen of Instagram with countless viral posts. In 2014, her photo announcing that she had married Kanye received 2.4 million likes and became the most liked post ever at the time. That same year, Kim ‘broke the internet’ when she featured, naked, on the cover of Paper magazine. The photo, taken by Jean-Paul Goude, went viral across multiple social platforms, including Instagram where Kim’s announcement post received an impressive 541,000 likes.
Christiano Ronaldo is not only one of the best (if not the best) footballers of all time, he’s also the most followed person on Instagram with a jaw-dropping 641 million followers. Not only that, but he also holds seven of the top 20 most –liked Instagram posts ever, including one of him and Lionel Messi playing chess for a Louis Vuitton brand collab that has over 42 million likes. The man really is the GOAT.
So, Instagram has been BUSY, but what will the next 14 years bring? With TikTok and new, emerging platforms consistently shaking things up, Instagram will have to keep evolving to stay in the game. From AI-powered features to even more interactive tools, it will be interesting to see how they try to keep us all hooked.
