Instagram now has 600mn users; last six months saw 100mn new users

By tech2 News Staff /  16 Dec 2016 , 11:29

Popular photography focussed social media network Instagram has just announced that it has reached 600 million users. Of this number, around 100 million users were added just in the last six months.

Thanking its users on its blog, Instagram release said, “You now have more ways to share than ever before with Instagram Stories, live video and disappearing photos and videos in Direct. Additionally, with updated safety tools that give you more control over comments and other parts of your experience, we’re working to make Instagram safer than ever for connection and self-expression.”

This number is also double that of its user base in 2014. Instagram which was bought by Facebook back in 2012 for $1bn, which was a huge amount of money at the time, has been seeing exceptional growth as compared to other social media networks. Its numbers are more than double that of Twitter, almost three times that of Snapchat. In Facebook’s bouquet of properties, Instagram is still behind Messenger, Facebook and WhatsApp.

Earlier this year, in May, Instagram completely redesigned its logo and added a black and white theme to the app. Since then, we have been seeing a lot of updates being added to Instagram, a lot of the more recent ones just lifted from Snapchat.

It has added features such as Live Videos and messages, which also disappear – just like Snapchat. Instagram Stories was another feature that was added on earlier this year – again, something that Snapchat has been doing for quite a while now. It has added Saved Posts as well. People clearly seem to be loving these features.

Yet another Snapchat feature lift? Instagram to notify your friend when you screenshot their DM

  26 Nov 2016 , 12:57

With the roll-out of a new update, Facebook-owned photo sharing app Instagram will now notify your friends when you take a screenshot of their Direct Messages (DM) — just like its rival Snapchat, a media report said.

However, the notifications are only for the new disappearing message feature, Mashable reported.

To use the new feature, a user can swipe right into the camera to take a photo or video, then tap the arrow to send it privately.

A user can choose a group or create one in just a few taps – and can also send to individual friends at the same time.

According to Instagram’s statement, “Unlike other messages in Direct, these photos and videos disappear from your friends’ inboxes after they have seen them. And you will see if they replayed it or took a screenshot.”

Also, you can take a screenshot of your feed and Instagram will pop a new window down saying, “You can share this post with your friends” — offering a user a few ways to officially share the image if you tap the button.

IANS