acquired the service for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock. Originally launched for iOS in October 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Instagram rapidly gained popularity, with one million registered users in two months, 10 million in a year, and 1 billion by June 2018. As of January 2019, Stories is used by 500 million people daily.

It also added messaging features, the ability to include multiple images or videos in a single post, and a Stories feature-similar to its main competitor Snapchat-which allowed users to post their content to a sequential feed, with each post accessible to others for 24 hours. In 2015, this restriction was eased with an increase to 1080 pixels. Instagram was originally distinguished by allowing content to be framed only in a square (1:1) aspect ratio of 640 pixels to match the display width of the iPhone at the time. Users can browse other users' content by tag and location, view trending content, like photos, and follow other users to add their content to a personal feed.

Posts can be shared publicly or with preapproved followers. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms.