YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, and now BeReal. It seems that no social media platform is safe from having its features replicated on Instagram. But where did it all begin, who have they copied, and is there really an issue with it?

Instagram was made in less than eight weeks by app developer Kevin Systrom and was launched in Oct. 2010. It was meant to be a photo sharing app with a focus on cell phone photos and rapidly grew in popularity. In less than two years, Meta (formerly FaceBook) bought the company for $1 billion in cash and stock.

As time went on, this simple photo-sharing app added several features, all coming soon after the release of various other social media apps.

Instagram had video sharing options in order to match YouTube. Once TikTok gained popularity, Instagram added “Reels” to compete (which are often just TikTok reposts). Reels showed much better engagement than Instagram videos and earlier this year Instagram removed traditional Instagram video posts.

Instagram added “vanish mode” in chats so messages can be seen and instantly deleted once navigated off of the page, much like Snapchat. Instagram now also has Bitmoji-esque avatars and Instagram stories; all features added after the release and rise in popularity of Snapchat in July 2011.

Most recently, Instagram has added “Dual,” a mode that takes a photo from the front-facing and back-facing cameras at once. This is in response to BeReal, a social media app that has risen in popularity since summer. The main issue with Instagram Dual is it completely misses the point of BeReal.

BeReal operates by sending every user a notification at some point during the day that says, “It’s Time to BeReal.” The idea is to take a photo of whatever you are doing and wherever you are at that moment within two minutes of receiving the notification.

Simultaneously, the camera will snap a picture using both the front-facing and a back-facing setting. The point is to be genuine, because so much of social media (especially Instagram) is filtered, edited and curated to give the illusion of perfection, when none of it is real.

Now other social media apps are not blameless victims of being copied. TikTok now also offers stories, YouTube allows creators to post updates that are strikingly similar to tweets, and YouTube Shorts are no better than Instagram Reels. So is there really an issue?

There is no integrity in copying and renaming another app’s original features. But developers want their app to be superior and won’t stop recycling until they have made as much profit as possible. But what’s the fun in having multiple apps if they’re all the same?

Sources:

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/102615/story-instagram-rise-1-photo0sharing-app.asp

https://startupbonsai.com/instagram-reels-statistics/