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The world is brimming with social media platforms and every month, over a billion people use Instagram, making it one of the most popular and influential photo-sharing and editing apps. Being one of the most hyped-up image-based social media apps, Instagram has revolutionized the way users share, edit and consume audiovisual content. Due to its phenomenal adoption and usage, it has gained massive worldwide acceptance and businesses around the world are trying to build an app like Instagram to boost profits in their ventures.
But it can only be profitable if done right!
When trying to replicate a social media application like Instagram, businesses must aim at combining a smooth and seamless user experience with intuitive and addictive visual-first features – photo uploads, likes, shares, comments and a never-ending feed scroll.
Below is a breakdown of what Instagram encompasses, followed by a 10-step guide on how to create a photo-sharing app like Instagram.
Businesses around the world are replicating Instagram and developing apps to engage with and capture as many users as they can. Many developers have successfully built Instagram Clone Apps using technology like Flutter, React Native and Firebase; apps like Snapchat, VSCO and 500px have also taken heavy inspiration from Instagram but added their own flavor.
At its core, Instagram is more than just a photo-sharing and editing app – it is a visual storyboard. It combines actions like photo-sharing, photo editing, video uploads, user interactions, short videos, etc., under one roof and offers unparalleled quality of service. For individuals and businesses alike, Instagram is becoming one of the most profitable and adopted social media marketing tools of all time.
With a ton of features and offerings, Instagram has cracked the code of what the new-age users want. Below are some of the defining features of Instagram that every app developer should know to make an app like Instagram.
User profiles become the digital identity of users on any app. This forms the first level of personalization, control and affinity towards using a social media platform. With the option to add profile photos, usernames, personal bios, links, etc., users feel they own the platform and are far more comfortable with uploading photos and videos.
When users feel they are in their own separate space, they can explore the app and its features freely.
Social media app development companies can also enhance their custom social app by providing additional privacy features for media views, comments and shares – a replica of Instagram’s public/private toggle.
Any application like Instagram, at its core, is primarily a photo/video sharing and editing app. Hence, the feature of uploading media to the platform is foremost. Any social media application like Instagram must allow users to:
Make sure your app supports images and videos in varied formats such as .JPG, .PNG, .MP4, .MOV, etc., to engage with more content. Mobile app development companies can use cloud storage like AWS S3, Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage, etc., for quicker and more scalable media handling.
Since its inception, Instagram filters have revolutionized the photo upload experience. Users, no matter how unique or pretty, want to visualize themselves in places and in forms that are out of this world.
Snapchat understood this and made a filter-heavy app for its users.
With the power to edit original photos and videos, users can engage more deeply with the application and create exceptional content.
When developing such social media applications, users must be able to:
Developers can add custom filters in the mobile app, based on Instagram’s unique ones like Clarendon, Juno or Lark and use image processing libraries like PhotoEditor SDK or OpenCV to build it.
For social media apps like Instagram, likes, comments and shares from other users are the engines of engagement. This is how it works for Instagram, and for you if you plan to create a similar image-based social media app. When a user posts an image or a video, other users should be able to engage with the content by liking, commenting and sharing it – likes reveal real appreciation, comments initiate interactions and shares show content relevance and reach.
Elements like likes and comment counts, use of emojis and GIFs, interaction insights, external shares, etc., should all be part of the application development process for such social media platforms. Developers should also consider implementing tools like Hive, Microsoft Azure Content Moderator, AWS Rekognition + Comprehend, Google Cloud Vision + Perspective API, etc., to prevent spam, abuse, harassment or content toxicity in the app.
Endless scrolling through user-generated content via feed is a typical characteristic of photo-based social apps. Any application like Instagram will surely need to develop this feature – this is what makes the users stick to the app, and be motivated to not just consume but create content as well.
Developers can choose between two feed models to offer to the users:
The content on the feed must include photos, videos, stories, status, GIFs, stickers, etc. If monetization is in the plans, sponsored content and ads would be a good inclusion. Users will need to have live updates and infinite scrolls on the apps; using tools like Firebase Realtime Database or Socket.io, developers can ensure a live feed every time.
Ephemeral content refers to those stories, status and temporary content that disappear after 24 hours. Social media applications have made it a routine to show ephemeral content – they engage more users, create a sense of FOMO, make users share content more due to limited availability and much more. Mobile application development frameworks must incorporate elements and configurations that support ephemeral content to drive more audience to user-generated posts.
Stories or status content should support images, video, GIFs, audio notes, written or text content and everything else users would want to communicate in. To make things more interesting and engaging, components like stickers, emojis, tags, mentions, polls, music, check-ins, etc., should also be available. Developers can use Cloud Functions to auto-delete past content.
Direct messages or DMs are quite common in image-based social media apps. Users tend to connect with other users for personal interactions. This not only increases the amount of time spent on the app, but also instills social affection towards meaningful conversations. Any app trying to replicate Instagram’s messaging system must offer one-to-one private chats and group chats to share photos, videos, reactions, text messages, emojis, and other interactive elements. Developers can go a step forward by enabling advanced features like:
Companies can use tools like SendBird, Twilio Chat API and Stream Chat to enable DMs in any image-based social media app.
One major motivator for user engagement and retention is Push Notifications. Companies have to understand that users are not just going to sit on social media apps to check their and everyone else’s updates every day – they need relevant content and they need it to be sent to them. Push notifications enable timely alerts of updates or uploads to users who can then check out the notifications. By giving real-time pings on new likes and followers, tags, messages, story views, replies, mentions, etc., image-based social media apps can increase user affinity towards their product exponentially. Developers can use OneSignal or Firebase Cloud Messaging for Android and iOS.
The ability to search, explore and find users and content has been core to social media. What to be social about if you can’t meet new people or see new things?
Apps like Instagram must have a search feature that allows users to find people, posts, hashtags, locations and topics that they want. The aim for mobile app development companies should be to find ways to make users engage more with their app – after all, the more users explore content, the more they consume and engage with it. The search feature should be packed with:
Most importantly, security and control over the app are crucial. Users must be granted full access and control over all features and functionalities to ensure the app and its content remain safe, secure, and operational. Admin controls should offer features like:
Developers can utilize custom dashboards or tools like Firebase Console and Strapi to create visually stunning admin panels and establish controls.
Picking the correct tools and technology can make or break your app. As a custom mobile app development company, you want something scalable, secure, and easy to develop.
Below is a proven tech stack for building an Instagram-like app.
Before diving into the app development process, understand the market dynamics completely to avoid any prior losses; it is impossible to decide and choose how to make a social networking app like Instagram without understanding the current market situation of image or photo-based applications.
Market research is the best way to understand what kind of audience you are dealing with. Try and ask yourself the following questions when conducting market research:
Start with conducting surveys and polls and analyzing app store reviews and comments. This will help developers bridge gaps between features that still exist. By answering these questions, companies will be able to have a clear understanding of what they need to build an app as appealing and lovable as Instagram.
Once you are done with the market research and know what your users will love, it is time to finalize the features of the app. At its core, for any app to be inspired by Instagram, it has to be a mix of content sharing, content discovery and networking. Be it a beta solution or an MVP, Instagram-like apps should include features like:
With the correct features, app development companies can target and acquire authentic users and streamline further dependencies.
As mentioned above, choosing the right tech stack is essential for mobile app development for apps like Instagram – these apps need to process and handle a huge amount of data, all while keeping the app secure and the performance high. As crucial as features are, choosing the right technology stack is not far behind. Every project, every product, the expectations, the features, all are different and copying Instagram’s tech won’t cut the queue for developers. React Native and Flutter both can be avenues to develop mobile apps, depending on what the stakeholders aim at. Refer to the table above to choose your appropriate tech stack.
In a time when users buy what they see, creating a user-first design approach is of the essence. In mobile app development, companies cannot undermine the importance of app design – creating an intuitive and clean interface, much like Instagram, can go a long way. Developers need to focus on both the User Interface (UI) and the User Experience (UX) to define the visual representation of the app, as well as the user flows and how users interact with and navigate through it, respectively.
To build a UI/UX like Instagram, custom mobile app development companies should focus on:
Developers can use tools like Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch, etc. to build phenomenal UI/UX. When designing for iOS and Android, it is recommended to familiarize yourself with Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines and Google’s Material Design Guidelines.
After you have finalized the top features that you are going to implement and the appropriate tech stack, it is time for the real deal – mobile app development. This is where great design meets exceptional coding, turning visualization into an interactive design.
To create an app like Instagram, developers need to work on both the frontend and the backend development. Though they may seem similar at first, frontend and backend cater to two very different aspects of the development process – the frontend helps in building what the users see and interact with, whereas the backend serves as the engine that powers everything from under the hood.
Developers need to follow agile development practices such as sprint-based development cycles, Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) and version control platforms like Git. Tools like Jira and Trello are heavily used for sprint planning; developers can team Jira with Slack (for communication) and Figma (for designs) to create seamless and shared workboards that keep the processes on track. It is also recommended to segregate the development cycle into phases, such as:
For your help, here are the top frontend frameworks you can use for your website.
Image-based social media apps like Instagram rely heavily on the use and storage of media in the form of photos, videos, stickers, GIFs and more. This data takes a lot of storage space and bandwidth, often hindering performance if not attended to. Developers must keep in mind the ways they can optimize content and its storage – they can use AWS S3 or Google Cloud Storage for file storage, FFmpeg for video compression, ImageKit or Cloudinary for image optimization. This, nonetheless, ensures a faster app loading and a smoother and cleaner user experience.
When developing social media platforms, you are dealing with millions of user-generated data points. Security in such apps has become a great concern that influences their usage, reach and potential. Being as non-negotiable as the app itself, social app security is something companies would want to consider from Day 1.
During the development process, ensure your social media app has:
With these in place, the app can build more trust among the users and increase its chances of adoption.
Testing an app before launch is one of the most essential steps to follow. Run your app via the QA modules to understand how the features and functionalities work. With this initial feedback, developers can understand what to change, modify or remove altogether. QA testing should cover areas like:
Tools like Selenium, Appium, TestFlight, Firebase Test Lab, etc., can be used to test the mobile app in relevant environments.
Once you are done and satisfied with your app testing, it is time for you to bring the app to the market. Build and launch a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that has the core features of the app. Let users and stakeholders test and use the product – this provides valuable and real human reactions and patterns. Implement A/B testing for new features and use analytics to decipher the trends and user preferences. Use this data to further refine the app functionalities and iterate based on the usage patterns.
Congratulations. Your app is ready and available to your customers. Thousands use it and they love what they see. But what’s next? Once you have built your perfect social media application like Instagram, it’s not time to sit idle. Think of methods to scale your app and monetize it to drive increased usage and revenue.
For scaling, developers can use the microservices architecture that enables them an independent development, auto-scaling servers for automatic allocation and CDN and caching for app functionality. To monetize the app, developers can implement promotional and sponsored content, ads, in-app purchases, a freemium pricing model with premium features, influencer-brand connections and e-commerce integration.
Building an app like Instagram is an ambitious yet achievable goal with the right strategy, team, and technology. By following the abovementioned steps and best practices, companies can ensure a well-thought-out mobile app development process and streamline their operations.
Unified Infotech is a pioneer in mobile and web app development with over 15 years of experience in the domain. If you want to build an app like Instagram, feel free to connect with us and share your vision. From seamless consulting and project understanding to streamlined delivery, we ensure your app is built and functions the way you want to.
Looking to create a social platform like Instagram and disrupt the visual-sharing landscape, contact us today and witness how we can bring your dreams into reality.
"Manish is the Technology Lead for iOS. He develops secure, high-performance mobile applications using Swift and Apple development standards. He ensures compliance with iOS guidelines and delivers intuitive user experiences across various Apple devices.”
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