when did instagram come out

Instagram came out on October 6, 2010, when it was first released to the public in Apple’s App Store.

Quick Scoop

• Instagram started as a photo-sharing app for iPhone only, focused on simple square photos and filters.

• The app was developed by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, who had originally been working on a different app called Burbn.

• On its first day live, Instagram attracted about 25,000 users, and it passed one million users in just a few months.

A Tiny Backstory

Before it was Instagram, the project was a more complex check‑in app named Burbn, mixing location check‑ins, photos, and gamified features. The founders realized users mainly loved the photo part, so they stripped the app down and rebuilt it around mobile photography. That refocus led to the rebrand as Instagram and the launch on October 6, 2010, which quickly turned it into one of the most downloaded social apps of that moment.

Why That Date Still Matters

• It marks the beginning of Instagram’s shift from a niche iPhone photo app to a global social media platform with billions of users.

• Less than two years after that launch, Facebook acquired Instagram for about 1 billion dollars in April 2012, underscoring how fast it grew.

• Today, many anniversary posts and timelines still use October 6, 2010 as Instagram’s “birthday.”

In forum discussions, you’ll often see people say “Instagram dropped in October 2010,” and they’re referring specifically to that October 6 App Store release date.

TL;DR: If you’re searching “when did Instagram come out,” the key date is October 6, 2010 — the day the app officially launched to the public on iOS.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.