cost to develop app like Instagram

We have read and even witnessed a lot of true success stories so far and surely many are on their way to follow. The Uber, the Amazon, the Airbnb, the Paytm, etc. are all on the peak positions in their respective categories. Similarly, both Facebook and Instagram have become the undisputed rulers of social media and rightly considered as the most powerful and strongest platforms to connect with the global audience. If we take the example of Instagram, there has been a massive progression in this photo and video-sharing social networking platform owned by Facebook Inc. ever since it made its advent on 6th October 2010. It was quite surprising to note that Instagram received a tremendous response from worldwide audiences and within a couple of months from its inception; there were about 1 million registered users. But it gained a real hike after social media giant Facebook acquired it in the year 2012. According to Statista, the number of Instagram users exceeded to about 800 million in September 2017 and the current figures of June 2018 states that the number has crossed to 1000 million. Just wow! One of the exemplary reasons for its enormous growth is the fact that Instagram like Facebook offers the most effective services to not only communicate with friends and relatives on a personal note, but it has become an empowering tool for the promotion of business and marketing helping you to reach out more customers. After reading these key insights about the popular photo and video sharing app, if the desire to get an application, similar to Instagram has already begun pounding your brain, then welcome; let’s get started and proceed with the journey. However, before that, we can have a short little discussion on the features and functionalities of Instagram so that it becomes easier to talk about the cost estimation. Basically, Instagram allows its users to upload images and videos. You can also edit them using the filters option. In addition, you can also tag a location and share it publicly or to a selected group of followers. The users can also access other accounts, follow them and add the content to a feed. In 2015, there was a breakthrough change as Instagram introduced the messaging feature and also provided more facilities to users allowing to add multiple images and videos in a single post. The Cost of Developing an App like Instagram So when you sit to have a thorough estimate of building an app similar to Instagram, you have to take into consideration, a number of variable factors. These include the choice of platform such as Android or iOS or both, the selection between native and hybrid, choosing the best features, picking the most budget-friendly plan of the app development company and so on. Developing an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) Since there are a number of photo and video sharing apps available both on Google Play Store and the Apple Store, it is highly recommended that you should first build an MVP of the product and get the valuable user-feedback on it. It allows you to save a lot of time and money; plus you also get an opportunity to test your idea feasibility. It must be remembered that although you are developing an app that is quite similar to Instagram, don’t just blindly copy-paste the features directly. For instance, it does not make any sense to add features like IGTV or Instagram Lite, etc. that have been recently added into Instagram. Instead, try to offer something exclusive that can instantly draw user attention. Setting up the Account Authorization The first setup that becomes crucial for social media apps like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat is beginning with the account authorization. Here the users will get a couple of choices; first is they can create a new account altogether and secondly they can sign-in into their existing account using their email or social media account. In addition, there is always an option where you can also set up a new password in case you forget it through, email, and phone SMS or social media account. One more important aspect to note here is that you have to save the user’s data on the backend for which you need a strong database same as the OAuth open authorization protocol for secured login into the account. The estimated time for development is ticked at 65 to 70 hours that include registration through emails, the sign-in or sign-out, registration through phone number and sign in through social media. Create and Edit Profile In the next step, you should focus on building the option of creating and editing profile so that users can start sharing their photos and videos. In addition, the users also get the option of editing their profile where they can change their personal details, profile picture, bio and much more. If we talk about the backend, you have to establish an interaction between the client and the server-side of the application. The estimated time for development is about 48 to 50 hours. Creating the Messaging Feature Once you have completed with developing the profile, you can now shift your focus towards creating the messaging feature. It is imperative that you offer a real-time messaging facility to your audiences if you want to succeed in your venture. This would probably require you to create a notification, which makes the users aware of the incoming message. At the same time, it is also very essential to protect the server from excess loading of the incoming and outgoing messages. In order to achieve your ends, you can make use of RESTful API on HTTP as a replacement of permanent socket connections. Similarly, if you want to have the notifications implemented then it is better to get linked with the Android or the iOS server through device authorization on the server. You can use APN or GCM for doing it. Building a messaging platform would probably require an estimated time of 120-140