Instagram feels like it’s been around since the dawn of the internet, but honestly, it’s younger than you might think. We all just sort of woke up one day and started posting grainy photos of our lunch with the "Earlybird" filter. But if you’re looking for the exact moment the world changed, here it is: Instagram was released on October 6, 2010. It wasn't some slow, quiet launch either. By the end of that first day, 25,000 people had already signed up. The servers basically melted. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the founders, were just two guys in a shared San Francisco office space (which they actually rented from the Twitter guys) wondering why on earth their "simple" photo app was blowing up so fast.
The Release Date: October 6, 2010
When we talk about when was instagram released, it’s important to realize it was originally an iPhone-only thing. If you had an Android back in 2010, you were totally left out of the loop for a long time. The app hit the Apple App Store just after midnight.
By the end of the first week, they had 100,000 users.
By December? Over a million.
It took Facebook years to hit a million users, but Instagram did it in months. People were obsessed with the square format—inspired by Kodak Instamatics and Polaroid cameras—and those original filters that made even a blurry photo of a cat look like "art."
It wasn't always called Instagram
Actually, the app almost didn't happen. Kevin Systrom originally built a prototype called Burbn. It was a mess. You could check in at locations (like Foursquare), make plans with friends, and post photos. It was way too complicated.
Systrom and Krieger looked at the data and realized people weren't using the check-in features at all. They only cared about the photos. So, they did something incredibly brave: they chopped off every single feature except for photos, comments, and likes. They renamed it "Instagram"—a mashup of "instant camera" and "telegram."
Why the Release Changed Everything
Before October 2010, sharing a photo from your phone was a total pain. You had to email it to yourself or use some clunky web uploader. Instagram fixed three big problems:
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- Bad photos: Phone cameras were pretty terrible in 2010. Filters hid the pixelated mess.
- Slow uploads: They made sure the photo started uploading while you were typing the caption. It felt instant.
- Distribution: You could post to Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare all at once.
The $1 Billion Phone Call
The growth was so insane that just 18 months after it was released, Mark Zuckerberg called Kevin Systrom. In April 2012, Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion. At the time, Instagram only had 13 employees. People thought Zuckerberg was crazy for paying that much for a company with no revenue.
Who’s laughing now? Honestly, probably everyone involved.
A Timeline of What Happened Next
If you're curious about the milestones after the 2010 release, here’s how it moved:
- April 3, 2012: The Android version finally launches (it got 1 million downloads in 24 hours).
- June 2013: Video sharing arrives. People hated it at first. Now we have Reels.
- August 2016: Stories launch. This was a massive pivot to compete with Snapchat.
- 2020: Reels officially rolls out to take on TikTok.
The Misconception About "The First Photo"
A lot of people think the first photo was posted on the release date in October. Nope. The very first photo ever posted to the platform was actually a picture of a dog and a foot at a taco stand in Mexico. Kevin Systrom posted it on July 16, 2010, months before the public could touch the app. It was used for testing, and you can still find it on his profile today. It has millions of likes now.
What You Should Do Now
If you’re looking back at the history of when was instagram released to help your own brand or personal account, here are a few things to keep in mind for 2026:
Check your Archive. Go back to your earliest posts. See what worked when things were "simple." Sometimes we over-engineer our content. Instagram won because it was fast and easy. If your current strategy feels like "Burbn" (too many features, too much noise), it’s time to simplify.
Focus on the "Instant" again. While highly edited content is still a thing, the trend is swinging back toward "raw" and "authentic" (think of how the app started). Use Stories to show the behind-the-scenes stuff that doesn't need a professional lighting crew.
Diversify your platforms. Instagram survived because it was willing to change. If you're only on one platform, you're at the mercy of the algorithm. Look at where your audience is spending time now—whether that's Threads, TikTok, or the next big thing—and make sure your "visual voice" is heard there too.
The story of Instagram’s release is really a story about simplicity. They took a complicated app, cut out the junk, and gave people exactly what they wanted: a way to make their lives look a little more beautiful, one square at a time.