Instagram: Social media app is 10 years old!

The popular social media app Instagram turns 10 today!

The picture and video sharing platform first came onto the scene back on 6 October 2010.

It was unlike other social media apps that had come before, with its main focus on images and visual content.

Created by tech whizzes Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, it has gained an absolutely huge following and made some big stars, over the years.

Instagram currently has around one billion active users a month, and 500 million people are on the app every day.

It's a big leap from the one million followers Instagram gained in its very first year.

It has a huge range of users, from members of the public looking to document their big life moments, to businesses and celebrities.

So what impact has the social media platform had over the years? Here are 10 of Instagram's most memorable moments.

The first photo

Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom was the first person to ever upload a picture to Instagram in July 2010, just a few months before it was open to the public to use.

The photo was of a stray dog co-founder of the app Kevin Systrom met in Mexico with the simple caption "test."

"Anything Could Happen"

In August 2012, Ellie Goulding released a music video for her new song "Anything Could Happen."

The video was the first to contain more than 1,200 different Instagram photographs, sent exclusively by her fans.

Grumpy cat joins Insta…hates it

Grumpy Cat (real name Tardar Sauce) rose to online fame as the nonplussed puss that inspired a thousand memes on Reddit in September 2012.

The permanently annoyed looking snowshoe cat took Instagram by storm the following month. Now with a line of merchandise to rival the Kardashians (almost), photographs with celebrity friends, games and cartoon characters made in her image. Grumpy Cat died in May 2019 but her legacy lives on with 2.6 million fans following the verified account.

#Selenabreaktheinternet

In 2016 Selena Gomez became the first person to ever reach 100 million followers, after fans of the singer and actor helped push her over the record-breaking number using the hashtag #selenabreaktheinternet.

New logo, who 'dis?

Instagram surprised everyone in May 2016 when it changed its distinctive camera-logo, to a brighter more colourful logo inspired by its community of users. It divided opinion at the time, with some users hating the new design and others loving it.

Queen Bey breaks the internet

Beyoncé took to Instagram to announce her pregnancy with a maternity shoot in 2017. She later gave birth to twins Sir and Rumi.

One billion users

In June 2018 Instagram announced it had reached the one billion monthly active user mark, the same year it launched IGTV, the standalone app which enabled users to upload longer videos.

10-year challenge

Australian siblings and animal lovers Robert and Bindi Irwin took part in the 10-year challenge

In 2019 a viral trend had users sharing a photo from 2009 next to a recent photo in a race to show their followers how much (or little) they had changed.

The trend was criticised for encouraging negative body image and allowing celebrities and users a platform to show off on.

Egg-ceptional popularity

In 2019, an egg became the most liked photo on Instagram, at the time reaching almost 55 million likes!

The popular egg took over the previous world-record held by Kylie Jenner whose announcement of the birth of her daughter Stormi reached 18 million likes.

World_record_egg is now a smug-faced verified account, with 5.9 million followers of its own.

Welcome to the 'gram, Sir David

In 2020, Sir David Attenborough became the fastest account to reach one million followers when he joined the platform for the first time in September.

In just a week, the 93-year-old broadcaster and nature campaigner doubled his followers to 4.5 million, and that number is still climbing!

For tips on using social media safely, check out Own It.