The hockey stick growth and increasingly avid fan base of photo sharing app Instagram surprised a few. And, with this week came an announcement that Android users will soon be able to join the vintage-y photo movement, it is clear that 2012 will be Instagram’s year.
So what make Instagram different? They are a bunch of squares.
Instagram is one of the few photo-sharing apps out there that forces images to be square. This seemingly minor constraint has had some huge implications on how and what the community shares.  It forces user to consciously choose the focus of each frame. That is important for an app that is consumed exclusively on tiny screens.
Every photo being the same ratio also makes the experience of scrolling through your stream more uniform and engrossing. No sudden and ridiculously long infographs popping up in your stream. A problem that has always bugged me about Pinterest.
Square images are also much easier to design around allowing Instagram to keeps its minimal interface.
Instagrams squares only policy didn’t just happen. It was a conscious decision. Co Founder Kevin Systrom explains:
“We realized that if we were going to do photos, that we’d have to be different and stand out. Square photos displayed really well in a feed format and frankly we just liked the aspect ratio better.”
We are seeing more and more of the classic constraints and standards of photography (and other analog art forms) slowly fade away as digital takes over. When was the last time you actually worried about a photos size or aspect ration? Do I want this in a 4×6 or a 5×7 or a 8×10? Who cares, just crop that thing and post it.

Instasquares

The hockey stick growth and increasingly avid fan base of photo sharing app Instagram surprised a few, until they used it. This week came the announcement that Android users will soon be able to join in on all the vintage-y photo fun. All 300+ million of them! It’s clear that 2012 will be Instagram’s year.

So what makes Instagram different? I think some of it has to do with them being a bunch of squares.

Instagram is one of the few (if not only) photo-sharing apps out there that requires users to crop their images into squares. This seemingly minor constraint has had some huge implications on how and what the community posts.  Unlike most places people share, Instagram forces you to consciously choose the focus of each frame. That is important for an app that is consumed exclusively on tiny screens.

Every photo being the same aspect ratio also makes the experience of scrolling through your stream more uniform and engrossing. No sudden and ridiculously long infographics popping up in your stream, a problem that has always bugged me about Pinterest. It just doesn’t look right. Square images are also much easier to design around allowing Instagram to keeps the interface minimal and out of the way.

Interestingly enough, this squares-only policy didn’t just happen. It was a conscious decision. Co-Founder Kevin Systrom explains:

“We realized that if we were going to do photos, that we’d have to be different and stand out. Square photos displayed really well in a feed format and frankly we just liked the aspect ratio better.”

We are seeing more and more of the classic constraints and standards of photography (and other analog art forms) slowly fade away as digital takes over. When was the last time you actually worried about a photos size or aspect ratio? Do I want this in a 4×6 or a 5×7 or a 8×10? Who cares, just crop that thing and post it.

Image Credit: Mazzarello Media and Arts

 

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