How to Make an App like Instagram: Comprehensive Guide

 

Over a billion people use Instagram every month.

Video and photo-sharing applications are gaining traction today. And Instagram leads this group of social media platforms.

You’ve probably wondered what it owed its success to and how to make an app like Instagram.

At the start of Instagram’s history, it was named Burbn, a solution that combined features of a check-in app and an online social game. But its founders didn’t stop there. They went further and decided to create a photo sharing app and combine it with photo editing features. Before then, such solutions existed, but only separately.

The combination of photo sharing and photo editing features was explosive. It became Instagram’s Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

Instagram is a successful social media marketing tool because of its larger and growing user base. There are a few factors that ensure its never-stopping popularity:

1.    First of all, the app’s creators came up with a really unique app idea at the time that wowed users.

2.    At first, they didn’t invest all the money into the creation of a new platform. They created a photo-sharing app for iOS only and tested it for two years. Only after they witnessed huge success did they move to the development of Android and web versions.

3.    They stayed flexible enough and quickly understood when to change the first app ideas and which direction to move.

4.    The company knows both how to get new users and how to retain existing ones. It’s one of the platforms whose popularity hasn’t wavered for over 10 years now.

5.    Instagram is an app with a pretty simple app idea. The company has stuck to it throughout the years, however, it successfully added new features that the audience loved.

HOW TO MAKE AN APP LIKE INSTAGRAM: 10-STEP GUIDE

The process of app development doesn’t start with coding. It starts much earlier with market exploration and competitors’ analysis.

Here is how to make an app like Instagram in 10 steps:


1. CONDUCT MARKET RESEARCH

It’s impossible to decide how to make an app like Instagram without understanding the current situation on the market of photo-sharing and social media applications. The first and most logical step is to conduct market research.


2. MAKE COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

Competitive analysis of apps like Instagram will help you define the vision of your own project. You need to learn from your competition, check their functionality, key strengths and weaknesses, and monetization methods.


3. VALIDATE INSTAGRAM-LIKE APP IDEA

One of the ways to ensure its success is to ask your potential users how to make an app like Instagram that they will love to use. The choice of the tool is up to you: you can create polls, get in touch with the target audience and ask them questions directly. After you get answers, it will be easier to finalize the USP of your photo-sharing app and create a business model canvas.


4․ CREATE PHOTO SHARING APP DESIGN

In the era where users ‘buy’ with their eyes, you can’t make the mistake of underestimating the importance of app design.

There are two parts of app design that you should take care of: User experience (UX) and User interface (UI).


5. CHOOSE THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGY STACK


You can’t create a photo-sharing app without knowing the tools that make Instagram running. 

Based on your business needs, we can offer native app development or Flutter app development.


6. DECIDE ON FEATURES

Instagram was introduced as a photo-sharing application and had a basic set of features. After successfully testing the app idea and seeing positive feedback from the audience, its creators added more advanced functionality.

Let’s review how to make an app like Instagram by analyzing which features you can add to your application – both basic features needed for MVP and advanced functionality required for further product implementations.


7. CHOOSE INSTAGRAM MONETIZATION STRATEGY

The first monetization capabilities were added after Facebook bought the company. What started as a sponsored posts feature later turned into a full-fledged advertisement system. Today, users can create a feed, carousel, story, and video ads.

8. START INSTAGRAM DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

After you’ve successfully identified features for the first version of your solution and chosen the technology stack, you can start the development process.

At first, you might want to start building an app like Instagram for iOS or Android only. During the research, identify what type of device is most popular among your target audience.


9. DEPLOYMENT, LAUNCH, & ONGOING DEVELOPMENT

When your app like Instagram is ready, it’s time to launch it to the market. Remember that the development process stops with this step. The key secret of successful applications is content improvements.

Just take a look at Instagram. If its creators stuck to the first version of the app, we wouldn’t have had such an app today.


10. MARKETING & PROMOTION

The marketing strategy for the app’s promotion isn’t created in a single day. You should start working on it long before you launch the version of the app to the market – while your app is still in the development phase.

Now that you know how to make an app like Instagram, for detailed information read How to make an app like Instagram.

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