But recently something happened to potentially stop the app's reign at the top: Instagram broke up with Twitter.
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| They're through. |
When I say they broke up I really do mean it in the literal sense. For as long as Instagram has been good it's had Twitter by its side, happily showing off pictures at just the click of a button and without any need to redirect to another website. It helped Instagram grow, it helped it become a household name and until just a few weeks ago the two looked destined to be happy in wedlock forever more. That is until we all realised the horrible consequences of Facebook.
Facebook bought Instagram earlier this year for a stupid amount of money (£1 billion) with a promise to make the service even more social than it already was. At the time people who read about this sort of stuff couldn't see the financial incentive for Facebook to own a free app. People don't have to pay to download it, people don't have to pay to use it and it doesn't even run any adverts or Facebook-esque device to promote your photos. Why ever would Facebook want it?
Well that all became clear recently in a move that as mentioned could potentially pave the way for other apps to take Instagram's top spot: Instagram stopped sharing its pictures on Twitter's newsfeed. When looking at a Tweet from Instagram, users stopped seeing the grey box that usually loaded up into a picture and instead just saw a link to the picture on Instagram's website. After a few hours of thinking the app was just not working properly the truth was finally revealed along with the sad realisation that Facebook had finally shown just how it was going to milk the app for all its monetary worth. By forcing users to click through to Instagram's site, something that online was hardly ever used before, Facebook now has the option to offer the site as a bountiful advertising platform and suddenly the pounds can come rolling in. Alongside that, your Instagram pictures will still show up on Facebook (slightly contradicting the Instagram CEO's explanation) so now the only way you can see Instagram photos without being directly on the app is by looking at either ad filled Facebook or, soon to be, ad filled Instagram.
Clever.
But it does ruin the idea of a truly social network a little. Which is sad. Will this see another photo sharing app take up the gauntlet? Will Twitter's new photo filters provide the answer? Or will people just get used to this new way of seeing pictures?
People are quite lazy on social media, that extra click could prove one step too far.