Instagram, the popular social network based on sharing photographs, died suddenly on Tuesday. At the age of six years.
The cause of death was an attempt to be everything to everyone. This Instagram has suffered in the past few months, but, in principle, cope somehow. Despite its status as a top app in Apple’s App Store and one of the most expensive acquisitions by Facebook, Instagram was not able to find the path that was laid down in service from the beginning. This fact became evident when the new beta version of the application showed the attempt to introduce the album of photos is from the traditional single photo.
Born in late 2010, Instagram was then charged with the robbery of the idea of other apps for sharing photos, including Hipstamatic and Picplz, although he soon surpassed them all. And although it took him some time to establish its dominance, Instagram did it because of its simplicity and filters. After Facebook paid an unheard of billion dollars for the service in 2012, Instagram has come to even greater success, having passed the mark of 500 million users in 2016. And it makes his death much more painful.
Over the past year, Instagram has expanded its capabilities by launching “likes” for comments, real-time video, and even a blatant copy of the ideas Snapchat “stories”. But with all of these changes, as expected, he forgot about the main task — sharing photos with friends and followers. Each new feature has the support of many users and opens new opportunities to generate revenue. In principle, those who wish only to view photos and their “charity” could just ignore the new tools.
Albums ready to change this situation. A function of changing the whole ideology of Instagram, allowing users to jointly publish up to ten photos in a single message. But understand, there are already literally hundreds of services that do the same thing, first and foremost, it is the parent of Instagram, Facebook. It seems that Instagram has clearly lost touch with the real desires of their customers.
Instagram… it was the idea of using a single, perfect photo, which is true now, at a specific point in your life. And although some users, as you know, we tried to combine some photos from the cruise, visit the museums, Yes, even trips to the dentist — their message was often “banjos”, and the popularity of such pictures was much lower, judging by the “likes”. Those who are not conformed to the unwritten rules of Instagram and continued to share de facto albums, often excluded from friends, was actually condemned by the Instagram community.
Albums will lead to the fact that will turn Instagram into a place where boring sets of the same photos from holiday gatherings at the bar and holiday parties mixed up with images of users that are actually fun to watch. And it is tragically inevitable and in the long term is not accustomed. Albums soul Instagram will never be the same, they will do the service a copy of Facebook. He will no longer have chips, and even if the service will continue to exist and perhaps even grow, its core is rotten, aimless, empty.
Some hope for the salvation of Instagram given the fact that the album is just a beta version, but all that hope was false. The test showed the simple truth that insatiable desire to connect Instagram user generated content is out of control, forgot everything that made the service popular.
Instagram will survive his descendants — Hyperlapse, Layout and Boomerang. And he will be buried in the app store GetJar. A small funeral ceremony will visit his adoptive parents from Facebook, as well as brothers and sisters WhatsApp and Messenger. In lieu of flowers, the family will allocate donations to the IPO Snapchat. And even selfies will not be allowed to do.
