One very unique feature introduced by Instagram was #hashtags, which makes it easy for users to find similar content by placing the number sign (#) before a particular word or phrase. This concept became so popular that the word ‘hashtag’ was even added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2014.
Instagram continued to increase its user engagement by adding features such as direct messaging, photo tagging, and additional photo editing filters. By 2012, the app had surpassed the 30 million user mark and social media giant Facebook clearly took note, buying out the company that same year for 1 billion dollars.
Since then they’ve continued to improve upon the app by incorporating, embedded posts, business profile options, sponsored photos and videos, and even the ability to share posts across other platforms such as WhatsApp, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook etc.
Instagram vs Snapchat
These days Instagram has many of the features that were unique to Snapchat. The app has incorporated live videos, selfie filters, stickers, hands-free option, and a slideshow sharing option. Since instagram launched its copycat ‘stories’ feature in August of this year, Snapchat’s original ‘stories’ feature has already taken a tumble. It sank 85 percent as reported by TechCrunch; this year Snapchat had its lowest percentage growth quarter since its data was publicly available in 2014.
