Instagram turns 10

Instagram disruptors like BeReal, Poparazzi, Dispo, and Locket have promised a more authentic, less curated reality. But even authenticity, over time, becomes performative; “photo dumps” become carefully-crafted compilations of artsy images that show us in a good light (“Look how this blurry photo implies I’m too busy having fun to take non-blurry ... See more

Though the interface looks a little messy, it’s actually relatively simple, a quality that Instagram has abandoned under Facebook’s ownership in favor of cramming in every feature and format possible.

kept poring over the data to understand how users were using the product. And what he found was that people weren’t using many of the product features at all, except for one: the photos. Systrom and cofounder Mike Krieger realized that taking and sharing photos was the aha experience they should redesign around. As Sawyer writes, “Mike and Kevin sa

... See more