Instagram Launches @Music

Instagram today announced the launch of a new official community on its service dedicated to music and musicians that will live under the handle @music. This marks the first time the company has created a dedicated account devoted to a single subject, explains the Facebook-owned social network in a blog post out this morning.

The idea for the new community was sparked by activity on Instagram itself, as one-quarter of the most popular accounts on Instagram today are those coming from musicians. Now Instagram is working to further fuel the flames of its 300 million+ users’ interest in the subject.

Explains Instagram founder and CEO Kevin Systrom, “The music community is — and always has been — an important part of Instagram. For the past four years, we have become the home for artists big and small — a place where people across the musical spectrum come to share stories, reveal their creativity and connect directly with fans,” he writes.

A number of popular artists today have Instagram accounts, including Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Madonna and more. But it has also become home to emerging artists, who are looking to grow their fan base.

The new @music community, which will be headed up by Instagram Music Editor Alex Suskind, will cover a range of topics related to music, says Instagram, including all kinds of artists, both up-and-comers like Tricot and stars, instruments, lyrics, studio sessions, concerts, album illustrations, music fans and more.

There will be just six posts per week added to this account and they will be grouped into series designated by specific hashtags. For example: #LocallySourced will cover unsigned acts, #DoubleTrack will focus on artists’ interests outside of music, and #15SecondLessons will include videos on how to perform “everything from riffs to drumbeats,” says Instagram.

The “community” aspect to the service involves getting @music followers to participate not only in the comments of the posts itself, but also with a new, music-themed monthly hashtag project, the company notes. This will be similar to the Weekend Hashtag Project Instagram currently runs on its main @Instagram account, only tailored to music community.

The main account has over 60 million followers, and is used by the company to spotlight creative members of its community. @Music is an extension of that.

The @music community is kicking off its launch today with the first feature on Questlove. Unlike many Instagram posts, these community contributions aren’t just a simple photo or video and a quick comment, but rather include long-form content. In the case of Questlove, for example, there’s a multi-paragraph article that provides a deeper look into the artist’s musical origin story.

The decision to branch into verticals focused on users’ interests is an interesting move for the photo-and-video sharing network, which had not before launched its own online communities to engage the service’s users in a meaningful way. If @music is successful, it could mean that Instagram will use it as a model to expand into other areas that also make sense for its user base, with other dedicated accounts like those for art or fashion, for example.

That would perhaps make the service more of a rival to networks like Twitter or Snapchat, for instance – the former which also serves as a way for musicians and other public figures to communicate with their fans, and the latter which has more recently expanded into content as well, with the launch of the news-focused section “Discover.”

However, Instagram says today it doesn’t have plans to launch other verticals at this time or run ads on @music. Rather, the company tells us, @music is an expansion of Instagram’s long-running editorial operation. “Creating content isn’t new for us,” an Instagram spokesperson explains. “We think spotlighting the most talented and creative members of the music community on Instagram is a very strategic long-term.”In addition, having an online topic-based community could help Instagram attract advertisers who want to reach a specific audience – Instagram’s younger, music-obsessed fans, that is. Today, there’s not a good way for advertisers to target a narrow demographic on the service because its users’ profiles are kept free from information that could help an advertiser identify their demographic data or interests. An online community (or communities) could eventually change that.

Instagram Cuts Off Hot GIF App Phhhoto From Its Social Graph

“Removed instagram friend-finding cause they blocked us! #nochill” This note in hip GIF app Phhhoto‘s latest release notes was how it announced its users can no longer easily follow their Instagram friends. Instagram confirmed to me that it has blocked Phhhoto’s Find Friends access, but it has a policy of not discussing platform enforcement issues regarding specific developers.

It’s likely that Instagram believed Phhhoto was violating its policy that developers not “Use the Instagram APIs for any application that replicates or attempts to replace the essential user experience of Instagram.com or the Instagram apps.” That’s understandable considering Phhhoto’s vertical feed based photo social network bears many similarities to Instagram.

This enforcement is essentially the same thing that Twitter did to Meerkat, cutting off its Find Friends access because it replicates Periscope functionality (though when Meerkat was built atop Twitter, it didn’t know Twitter owned Periscope). Instagram similarly cut off Kevin Rose’s now-deceased photo app Tiiny back in October.

Phhhoto’s app lets you record for about two seconds to create a silent, looping, animated GIF. You can then share this GIF to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. It’ll also appear in the Phhhoto feed to your followers, and if it gets enough likes it could end up on its ‘Wow’ tab.

Phhhoto still lets users save their Phhhoto GIFs as videos and instantly push them over to Instagram to be published. But without the option for Phhhoto users to recreate their social graph from the world’s top photo app, it might have a harder time lacing people together and keeping them engaged.

Phhhoto’s founders aren’t too worried though, as Champ Bennet told me “it wasn’t too surprising, and we’re not really sweating it. They’ve done it before to Tiiny, so we kinda saw it coming. When we were building the feature we even saw it as a possibility.”

It seems that Phhhoto’s founders understand why Instagram might think it replicates their functionality. It is in fact another photo feed app, though Instagram uses real videos that loop with sound, rather than GIFs. Bennet says “We thought it would be fun to drop it in the release notes but there’s no hard feelings.”

Luckily Phhhoto already has over 1 million registered users, has seen 10 million posts, and has risen in the iOS app charts to break the top 500 overall this month. Its physical photo booths that can upload to the app have also become a hit at parties in Silicon Valley.

Still, Phhhoto is massively dwarfed by Instagram’s 300 million-plus active users. If anything, the move makes Instagram look a little insecure and threatened by a competitor less than 1/300th its size. And it begs the question: Is Instagram looking to get into GIFs?

Instagram Tightens Guidelines to Curb Pornography and Harassment

Instagram is dropping the nice-guy act.

The photo- and video-sharing app Thursday unveiled more-detailed standards for images, aimed at curbing pornography and harassment. The tone is tougher, too: Instagram cut the number of times it says “please,” to one, from four.

“In the old guidelines, we would say ‘don’t be mean’,” said Nicky Jackson Colaco, director of public policy for Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. “Now we’re actively saying you can’t harass people. The language is just stronger.”

For example, Instagram’s previous guidelines asked users to be polite and respectful. The revised version is much longer and specifies that “serious threats of harm to public and personal safely aren’t allowed.”

Ditto for nudity. Before, Instagram asked users to refrain from posting “nudity or mature content.” Now, the guidelines are more specific. Photos of post-mastectomy scarring or women breastfeeding are okay. Not okay: “Close-ups of fully nude buttocks”

The overhaul of Instagram’s community guidelines is the biggest since Facebook bought the app three years ago for $1 billion. Since then it has exploded to 300 million monthly users, from 30 million.

With that growth have come questions around how the site should police bullying and potentially offensive content. Instagram doesn’t screen images before posting, but reviews those that prompt complaints from users, and removes those that violate its guidelines.

Instagram says it fields hundreds of thousands of complaints each week.  Parents in many parts of the U.S. have raised concerns about cyber bullying of students, including writing mean comments on a photo or posting a picture with a mean caption.

Instagram’s global audience means executives have to find a balance among differing cultural norms around issues like nudity. In some places, nudity is accepted; in others, it is taboo.

“How do we establish a baseline around nudity when you have hundreds of millions of users?” Colaco said. “We need to create a standard that most people can live by.”

In some cases, critics complain that Instagram has overreached, and removed too many images. Earlier this year, photos posted by the artist Rupi Kaur depicting menstruation were removed twice before Instagram apologized and restored the photos. Colaco said the removals were a mistake.

Tinder Cuddles Up To Instagram In Latest Update

Tinder released an update today that integrates directly with Instagram, letting users scroll through the Instagram profiles of their potential matches within the app itself.

Tinder now also supports common connections, letting users see the degree to which they’re separated from a person based on the social graph, as well as presenting all Facebook interests instead of just common interests.

The Instagram integration is the most important piece here, as a high percentage of Tinder users already include their Instagram handle within their profile, to give potential mates a more rounded-out view of their life. With Instagram inside Tinder, users can click into a user’s Instagram profile and see the most recent 34 pictures, with the ability to click directly into their profile to see the whole thing, check out comments, who liked it, and more granular details.

For users who have private Instagram accounts, they will be presented with an option to grant Tinder access, which would make your Instagram public on Tinder only.

 

 

The updated Tinder also adds common connection information into the mix, letting you see that you share a mutual friend with a match (first degree) or that you and your match have two separate friends who happen to be friends with each other (second degree). Essentially, what LinkedIn usually refers to as second- and third-degree connections, Tinder calls first- and second-degree connections, respectively.

Beyond that, Tinder has also included all of your Facebook interests on your profile, with the hopes to make it easier for users to get the conversation going.

“This is the first of many steps to take the recommendations engine to the next level and help you assess the person you’re matching with and start those conversations,” said Tinder cofounder and President Sean Rad. “If we can provide our users with more relevant information for each connection, we can take them halfway there in terms of getting a conversation going.”

Tinder recently introduced Tinder Plus, an ad-free paid tier of the service and includes access to premium features like PassPort and Rewind, letting you search for matches globally and go back on an accidental left swipe, respectively. Tinder Plus costs between $10 and $20, depending on age.

That said, features included in today’s update are available to all users, both free and paid.

The update for Tinder can be found in the App Store and on Google Play.

Instagram Launches Layout, Its Own Photo Collage App

Instagram today announced the debut of a new application called Layout, the company’s next standalone creation tool outside of its flagship photo-sharing application. With Layout, Instagram users will be able to quickly build collages using their mobile photos, which they can then choose to share to Instagram, Facebook, or elsewhere.

Collage-making is already a popular activity on Instagram, the company tells us. One in five monthly active users on Instagram use a collage app at least once, we’re told. Today, the app stores are filled with utilities that offer this sort of capability – including apps like Pic Stitch, Pic Collage, InstaCollage, PhotoGrid, and many others. The apps are all similar in nature – they offer a variety of blank photo grids which users can customize with their own photos, and sometimes optional text or stickers.

To Instagram’s credit, it didn’t just knock off the existing collage-making apps already on the market, but instead tried to come up with an app that would improve the experience for mobile users.

In Layout, Instagram offers a new take on how collages are built by changing the order of the steps involved in the process.

“The first thing you see is a view of the Camera Roll,” explains Joshua Dickens, Product Designer at Instagram. “Most apps give you a bunch of empty grids. But more important is choosing the photos you want to share, before you lay them out,” he says.

As you tap to select the photos you want to use, Layout then presents previews of custom layouts you can scroll through at the top of its screen. You can select up to nine photos using Layout, and each time to tap to add another, your photo grid options update automatically to reflect the new additions. When you’re finished adding images, you can then flick through the presented options to choose the grid you like the best.

Faces

Another interesting feature in the collage-building process is the ability to tap onto a “Faces” button at the bottom of the screen to filter your Camera Roll to show only those photos with pictures of people. 90% of photos used in collages have faces in them, Instagram found, so this option will be useful to those who are filling their grids with photos of friends and family, instead of just cityscapes, objects, or other scenery.

Photo Booth

There’s also a “Photo Booth” button that lets you use Layout to capture more spontaneous moments. When you tap this button, the app starts a countdown timer and then captures a series of photos that you’ll see appear instantly in a layout.

Having used a number of the photo collage apps in the past, I found that the way Layout flipped the first few steps involved with making a collage – that is, first selecting the photos, then choosing the grid – significantly sped up the previously time-consuming process of collage building. For example, I was able to quickly create a few photo collages in a matter of seconds over the weekend – in the middle of a six-year old’s chaotic birthday party, of all places. In the past, the same activity using an app like Pic Stitch would have required a lot more time and trial and error to find the right grid and the best photos to use. With Layout, however, the process wasn’t just fast – but the learning curve to figuring out how all the features worked, too, was greatly reduced.

Grid Options

Like other collage builders, Layout also allows you to pan the photos as well as pinch and zoom to better situate them. Plus you can grab the handles of a photo to resize it in the grid you’ve chosen, making it larger or smaller in relation to the others. A “replace” button lets you quickly pull up your Camera Roll again in order to swap out photos, which can be done with just a tap.

Swapping out photos all takes place on the same screen, too. Some apps I’ve used in the past would pop up the Camera Roll view in its own window, which made it difficult to think about which photo would look right in your current grid option. I preferred the way Layout does this instead.

Layout also offers a few differentiated tools, including the ability to tap buttons that flip images upside down or make photos mirror each other. This allows for more artistic creations, like turning landscape shots into ones with a cool water effect – where the land and sky seems to be reflected into a glassy pool, for example. It also offers a way to do more fun, “pop art” style shots, which could serve to spice up selfies or the popular “outfit of the day” shots many Instagram users post regularly.

When you’re finished with your collage, you can save the photo locally, share to Instagram, Facebook, or to other services whose apps you may have installed on your iPhone through iOS’s included sharing options.

Instagram had been researching the possibilities for an app like Layout since last fall, and the app itself has been in development over the past few months. Like its video app Hyperlapse, the company built Layout not to generate additional revenue for the company – there are no in-app purchases for things like more photo grids or effects, nor will it monetize through ads – but rather to encourage more photo-sharing to Instagram by fixing the problems with today’s current collage apps.

With the debut of Layout, it appears that the Facebook-owned company, which now sports over 300 million active users monthly, is working to find ways that allow it to keep its main app simple for its core audience, while also meeting the needs of more advanced users who are in search of better tools for working with their photos and videos. This fits in with the trend where Instagram has been looking at what other apps people are using as companions, and then trying to build the functionality itself, sometimes in Instagram’s core product, and other times as standalone apps, as with Hyperlapse.

“A key part of the Instagram vision is about inspiring creativity,” notes John Barnett, Product Manager at Instagram. “Creation should be simple, intuitive and fun,” he adds.

Layout is currently an iOS application, but an Android version will be released in the months ahead.