Today marks 10 years since Instagram's launch on October 6, 2010. For this occasion, the Facebook-owned photo and video sharing social media app has been updated with a fun, somewhat nostalgic surprise.
If you have the Instagram app updated and open its Settings menu, you'll notice that pulling it down reveals something unusual – a few emojis show up, hinting at an easter egg. If you keep pulling you'll now enter a new, hidden Instagram menu allowing you to choose a different icon for the app.
Funnily enough I found this easter egg by just a shot in the dark. Not too well hidden, thankfully!
Among the icon choices is the classic polaroid one you may remember from Instagram's early years. And on top of the page, a small paragraph reads:
"To celebrate our birthday, this month we're inviting you to change your app icon to your favorite below. Thanks for being part of our story and using Instagram to share yours."
Indeed, once you choose an icon, that one will now show up on your home screen instead of the default modern one. It's kind of fun seeing how we went from a detailed polaroid icon to a modern minimalist one in the span of five years. Once upon a time, those meticulously detailed icons were the norm, instead of today's aim for minimalism and simplicity.
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We don't know if the option to choose an Instagram icon is here to stay for longer than this month, but it's a nice throwback and a fun easter egg to check out while it lasts.
In a blog post about Instagram's birthday, Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, also promises that in the coming months, the app will see "major changes" and "big improvements to messaging". Mosseri also notes the following, in regards to Instagram's future:
"We’ll look to accelerate ways for creators to make a living and for small businesses to sell their products. Through all these changes, our community will remain the heart of Instagram, and we’ll stay focused on keeping people safe and building new features that fight bullying, improve equity, address fairness, and help people feel supported."
Android users can download or update Instagram from the Google Play Store here, while iPhone users can do so from Apple's App Store here.
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Rado is a former tech writer for PhoneArena. His tech journey began with MP3 players and has evolved to include tinkering with Android tablets and iPads, even running Linux and Windows 95 on them. Beyond tech, Rado is a published author, music producer, and PC game developer. His professional work on iPads, from producing songs to editing videos, showcases his belief in their capabilities. Rado looks forward to the future of mobile tech, particularly in augmented reality and multi-screen smartphones.
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