Tarun Nagar 
In this modernized era, people are becoming more tech-savvy, and as a result, social applications like Facebook and Instagram have witnessed tremendous success in the past few years. Today, social media apps like Instagram are treated as the strongest and dominating platforms. They not only help people connect but also offer a medium for online businesses to promote their products and services.
As per research, around 50-60% of the population uses social media platforms, which is 3.50 billion people. It raises a query among businesses, how to make a social media app like Instagram? The amazing functionalities and user-friendly interface of Instagram have helped it mark the spot as a popular social media platform. It isn’t the only reason, as there are several other reasons too that you will discover while reading this blog. So, let’s get started!
Table of Contents
What Is Instagram?
Developed by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in San Francisco, Instagram has become the largest social media platform for photo-sharing, brand promotion, e-commerce apps, video-sharing, etc. Through Instagram, social commerce is growing at an exponential rate.
Instagram Market Value & Current Statistics
Today, almost everyone is an Instagrammer, and its user-friendly & appealing interface is one of the major reasons behind it. Also, let’s discover the current market value and stats of video apps like Instagram to know their importance.
• In 2019, Instagram generated around $14 billion in advertising revenue.
• Around 70-75% of the content on Instagram is in image format, 13-15% are videos, and the rest are carousels.
• There are 1 billion active users on Instagram (per month).
• Instagrammers between the ages of 25-30 years spend at least half an hour per day on Instagram.
• The USA has around 120 million Instagram users and is expected to reach 1.2 billion users by the end of 2023.
These figures indicated above clearly signify the rising importance of Instagram-like social networking app development. Now that you know the market value and are pretty satisfied to develop an app like Instagram, let’s understand how it works.
How Does Social Media App Like Instagram Works?
Instagram is a very easy-to-use social media application with a visually appealing and intuitive UX/UI. Moreover, the Instagram algorithm is counted for making the user feel delighted by the content uploaded on Instagram. Its working algorithm is like this –
1. User upload a post that is displayed to a small percentage, i.e., ≈10% of the subscribers.
2. Instagram’s engagement level is measured with likes, shares, comments, and saves.
3. If the engagement level is high, the Instagram post will be displayed to the remaining users as well. On the other hand, if there is low engagement, very few people will be able to see the post.
So, this is how popular social media or video-sharing app like Instagram works and help both general users and businesses gain a strong social presence.
How to Develop An App Like Instagram?
Now comes the important question you’ve been looking for, i.e., how to develop an app like Instagram? It is quite challenging, but it can be overcome if you know the right steps to create social media apps like Instagram. Let’s review each step one by one.
1. Conduct Extensive Research
Without knowing the current market scenario, it is impossible to develop a successful social media app like Instagram. That’s why it is crucial to conduct extensive market research, as it will help you know about the market of similar apps like Instagram. The time invested in researching before social networking app development will benefit you while creating an app. So, don’t take this step for granted; instead, focus on it.
2. Perform Competitor Analysis
Besides research, performing competitor analysis is a must to define the vision of your app like Instagram. It will help you learn from your competitors and know their key strengths, functionalities, and weaknesses. Identifying all this will help you create a video sharing or social media app that will outshine competitors in no time.
You can consider the following list of the best social media applications for conducting competitor analysis.
• Instagram
• Flickr
• Retrica
• Pinterest
• Hipstamatic
• Snapchat
• Unsplash
3. Validate Your Business App Idea
Creating an application like Instagram is definitely a challenging task as no one knows about the target audience at the beginning of the process. So, one of the best ways is to take potential users’ reviews to know their interests, preferences, and more. After that, it will become easier for the users to finalize the USP of the video-sharing app development process. Other than this there are different Entertainment app development ideas as well.
Also, to make the process a little easier, you can work by dividing the business model into small chunks, as it will ease your job.
4. Think of Attractive Social Media App Design
This era is all about modernization, where users tend to buy products and services that looks appealing or grab their attention at first glance. That’s why focusing on UX/UI is crucial while working on mobile app development. For that, you need to study the latest trends in app design while exploring the latest innovations and consider them during app development.
If you are availing of social media app development services, ask the developers to keep the design simple and appealing, making your Instagram-like app stand out among the rest.
5. Choose Appropriate Tech Stacks
None of the business applications can be developed without implementing the right tech stacks. Thinking about what tech stack to use for Instagram App Development? Here is the answer. Check on the following data.
| Tech Stacks | ||
| Type | Android App | iOS App |
| Language | Kotlin | Swift |
| Networking | OkHttp 3, Retrofit | Alamofire |
| Tech Stack | Back-end Development |
| Language | Node.js (JavaScript) |
| Framework | Express 4, Django |
| Database | MySQL, Cassandra, PostgreSQL |
| Messaging | Socket.io |
| API documentation | Swagger |
| Web Server | nginx, Gunicorn |
The tech stacks you choose will impact social networking app development costs, so think twice before implementing anything.
6. Pick Unique Features
When Instagram was developed, it was nothing more than a photo-sharing application. After successful testing and validation, the creators added more features and functionalities to Instagram. Now, the application serves multiple purposes at a time.
So, if you are planning to create a social media app like Instagram, you need to think out of the box to beat the competitors and outshine them. We will discuss the features in detail later in this blog. Till then, continue reading.
Read More- Create an App Like Tiktok- Video Streaming App Development
7. Start Instagram-Like App Development Process
Once you are done with all the steps mentioned above, it is time to develop an app like Instagram. But, before that, choose the development platform for which you want to create an app, i.e., Android, iOS, or both. The development stage is basically divided into three different phases that are –
• Coding
• QA & Testing
• Deployment
Once the process of on-demand app development is completed, test your application properly to ensure that all the errors and bugs are removed before you launch the app on the Google Play Store or App Store.
Creating a perfect app like Instagram that earns you success and profit isn’t as challenging as it seems to be. With these steps, one can easily develop a better social networking app in less time. We all know that features are the heart of any mobile application and decide the success of an app. So, here we have highlighted the essential features of an Instagram-like app.
Essential Features Required to Develop An App Like Instagram
Are you working on creating an app like Instagram? Wondering about the features to include? Here is the list of the essential features required to develop an app like Instagram that will make your app successful within less time.
1. Registration & Authorization
User registration and authorization is the foremost step of any mobile app development process, and the Instagram app is no different. Add multiple options for user sign-in and sign-up to enable users to register on your social media app in a go. Do not keep the registration process lengthy; otherwise, the majority of the users will leave your app without even registering.
2. Profile Management
While creating a video app like Zoom similar to Instagram, don’t forget to add the profile management feature to your app like Instagram. This feature will enable the app users to log in to the account and edit their personal information name including name, phone number, email address, profile pic, etc.
3. Upload Photos & Videos
Now comes a crucial feature of your social networking app, i.e., uploading photos and videos. There are multiple ways to implement this feature and make your app stand out from the rest. So, think about adding photos, previewing content, and including videos. Deciding this will also help you estimate the cost to develop an app like Instagram, as the more features you include, the higher the cost will be.
Read More – Audio Chat Social Networking App Like Clubhouse: How To Develop And Cost
4. Social Media Networking
Social media applications are all about sharing photos, videos, and creating networks, so including this feature is a must. It will help the users stay in touch with their friends while sharing content among their networks. It is one of the best features to increase app engagement and generate more revenue and profit within less time.
5. Geo-Location
Social networking apps are not only about posting photos; there is a lot more like sharing places and vacation spots that will require geo-location features. Adding this feature will make your social media app more valuable and exciting for the users while enabling them to share their location through posts, videos, live, and more. Here are some of the new trends in geolocation app development for different industries.
6. Search Filter
Creating a successful app like Instagram isn’t possible without inserting a search filter. So, offer users the ability to search for content, groups, tagged photos, news, and more. It is another amazing feature to increase engagement on your application and double the profit in no time.
7. Push Notifications
Push notifications are one of the strongest assets to keep the users updated about the ongoing app activities while increasing user engagement. So, enabling push notifications while developing video apps like Instagram will help the users and benefit businesses in bringing more reach and engagement.
8. Commenting & Messaging
Real-time messaging and commenting make Instagram a popular social media application. This amazing feature lets the users easily communicate with their friends via text message and comment on each other’s posts. The feature is very similar to apps like Whatsapp which is also messaging app development.
9. Stories
Stories automatically disappear after 24 hours if the users don’t save them. This feature helps social media app users share interesting moments or memories that they don’t want to appear on the feed. So, you can also ask the developers to include such a feature while availing of on-demand app development services. To add more privacy to this feature, you can add a ‘Close Friend’ feature where only the chosen connections will be able to review the story.
10. Privacy Setting
Finally, the last yet crucial feature of creating social media apps like Instagram is Privacy settings. It will help make some personal adjustments to the social media application and help users remain ensured of their safety and security.
So, these are some essential features that can help you craft a successful social media app like Instagram. Every social networking app feature mentioned above will contribute to your app’s success, so try to incorporate all of them while creating an app like Instagram. The more features an application contains, the higher will be its cost, so review all the features before adding them to your Instagram-like app.
How Much Does It Cost to Develop An App Like Instagram?
The cost to develop an app like Instagram reels varies depending on multiple factors, including app size, complexity, and more. Usually, the video app development process ranges between $50,000 – $200,000. Businesses can only get a final mobile app development cost once everything is decided. Still, to get an estimated idea, here is an overview of the development cost based on development time & platform.
| Dev hours | Android | iOS | |
| Backend | 400 | $12,000 | $14,000 |
| Development | 1800 | $54,000 | $63,000 |
| Design | 100 | $3,000 | $3,000 |
| Web/Desktop | 1000 | $35,000 | $35,000 |
| QA | 100 | $3,000 | $3,000 |
| Total Cost | 3400 | $109,000 | $118,000 |
The cost to develop social media applications of the video conferencing app is very similar, such as the cost to develop a video conferencing app ranging between $50,000 – $200,000.
Conclusion!
In the process of how to make a social media app like Instagram, consider every little detail, including Instagram app features, cost, and tech stack. We hope this blog has helped you understand the steps to developing an app like Instagram and more. Now that you are well-versed with the entire social media app development process, it is time to get into it.
If you are willing to avail social networking app development services, it is advisable to connect with experienced professionals only. It will help you get a well-structured and feature-rich app like Instagram at the right time and within the desired budget.
