Instagram

Photo and video sharing

Instagram is a social app for sharing photos, videos, short updates and messages. You can publish posts to your profile, follow people and organizations, and browse a feed shaped by the accounts and topics you follow. It suits users who want one place for personal updates, visual discovery and communication with friends or wider audiences.

Ways to share

Stories let you post temporary photos and videos, while Reels focuses on short-form video with editing effects, music and other creative tools. Notes provide brief updates, and direct messages support one-to-one and group conversations. A Close Friends list gives you a more limited audience for selected Stories and other updates.

Discovery and communities

The Explore area helps you find posts and accounts outside your usual feed. Instagram also includes topic-based discovery, creator content and product-related posts from businesses. Public profiles can help creators, organizations and brands build an audience, while private accounts give users more control over who can see their content.

Scale and account details

Instagram is listed in the Social category and is published by Instagram. The app has a reported rating of about 4.0 out of 5 from more than 166 million ratings, with 5,000,000,000+ installs. Its large user base is useful for keeping up with people you know, but it also means the feed can include recommendations, creator posts and advertising alongside updates from followed accounts.