With more than a billion active users worldwide, Instagram is one of the leading social media platforms these days. Have you ever thought about how to build Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook-type application? In this blog post, I am going to share with you some crucial information related to Instagram like social media app development and its associated cost. So, Let’s begin.
What is Instagram Social Media App and Why did it gain such popularity?
One of the most common secrets of the success of Instagram lies in the set of interesting features it holds, the simplicity of its user interface, and great app performance. That’s why the demand for Instagram clone app development is increasing day after day. Let’s understand the reason for Instagram’s popularity straight from its CEO: Kevin Systrom. Source
HTML and JavaScript are something that we all are very accustomed to and when you get into objective-c and you get into these native platforms not only are you dealing with a different language but you’re also dealing with very different access patterns of the users. You’re also dealing with being on 2G, 3G, or 4G internet speed. So you have to make sure to optimize your app for speed and for you know inactivity of network you just created an application
One crucial aspect of the success of Instagram is what different elements that you put into it to make it so popular. We kept it really simple and the one thing that people keep saying on Twitter about Instagram is how addicted they are and that’s what really excites us because we feel like we’ve created something that’s easy to use and it’s simple. I think the aspect that makes us stand apart is that we removed extraneous features right and focused on what matters. So go through the specifics sure so we focused on the speed of upload.
We keep enhancing the graphics of the app constantly and we make sure that’s always fast the filters we put a lot of effort into. I think that people use our filters because we put a lot of effort into making them good right I think there’s you know a subjective quality to our judgment about the filters I think we’re really excited about how hard we’ve worked on that. Also, we put it as part of the flow it’s not an extra option it’s simply presented you to you n the upload process and I think that’s what you know makes a lot of people try it out initially.
Essential Features in Instagram Like App Along With Time of Development
In order to start the mobile app development process, you should be pretty clear about which options your Instagram like mobile app is going to include. It is a good move to hire Instagram Clone App Developer who knows all these features beforehand.
Account authorization
The user interface and experience with your mobile application start with the account authorization process. Consider providing the opportunity to register with an email account, phone number, or social media page name. The total time for implementing this option is about 67 hours both for backend and mobile development.
Basic changeable fields
Once your users have logged in your app, they should be able to edit their account. The basic changeable fields should include gender, name, website, phone number, etc. For this, add 48 hours to the total build time.
Real-time chatting
Obviously, people want to communicate in any social media application! You have to give your customers the possibility by implementing a message exchange option. Set it up so that they can chat in real-time. This also increases the development time by a further 132 hours.
User Experience
You need to make sure that the settings should be pretty adjustable, for the convenience of the particular usage of your customers. Let your mobile app users choose the interface language, as well as set the account as private, enable or disable push notifications, etc. Depending on the number and complexity of settings you would like to have in your mobile app, you can consider adding from 96 to 128 hours.
Uploading Photos and Videos
Uploading photos and videos is an essential part of the Instagram app. Do not forget about such details as preview display, uploading existed content, commenting, tagging, taking pics, etc. This functionality might take from 76 up to 320 development hours.
Adding Filters to the Photos
Instagram is known for its filters. Amaro, Brannan, Hudson, Slumber, Cream- to list just a few of them. You need to understand that users like to play with their photos by changing how they look in any specific condition. Therefore, why picture customization is a “must-have” feature for your Instagram like app. You need to note that applying standard filters does not take much time – 36 hours in total. However, in order to create custom filters, you should add 16 hours for each one.
Photo Editing
Don’t forget about rotating, straightening, and setting up perspectives. All in all, the time for adding photo customization is going to take around 68 hours.
Social Media Integration
One of the best things about Instagram is that you can easily interact with your friends, no matter which social media network they prefer or have an account. The more social media you are able to integrate into your mobile app, the better it would be. However, consider adding 8 hours for implementing each of them.
Geo Location Integration
The integration of geo location will also help to extend the functionality of your Instagram like mobile application and make it more interesting for the customers. Users like sharing places where photos and videos are taken. To include this option, add another 24 hours to the total time of custom mobile app development.
Search option
Last but not the least, is the addition of a Search option in your mobile application. You need to allow users to look for any information utilizing a set of predefined parameters. For instance, to filter by tagged photos or liked posts. Be ready to spend 64 hours for this feature in your app.
Parameters Affecting Cost of Instagram Like Application
App UI/UX Design
Well, we have reviewed all the basic options to be included in an app similar to Instagram. You need to understand that about 59% of people leave your site or app if it has a poor interface. However, the costs do not end there. As well as being functionality-rich, your Instagram like a mobile app should have a good-looking and user-friendly interface. To achieve that, add 60 hours for the UI/UX design.
App Hosting Server
An app based on photo and video sharing won’t survive without reliable dedicated servers. The price of hosting may greatly vary depending on the disk speed, data traffic, storage type, operating hours, physical server location, etc. You can start using free hosting, then move on to the more powerful, but more expensive storage services.
Development Team & Its Location
The development team location may greatly affect your app costs. In order to save money, we advise you to hire someone in India as their hourly rate is significantly less than those based in the USA or European countries. Indian coders are likely to charge you about 15- 25 dollars per hour.
Hybrid or Native Application
It is always recommended you create a native mobile application for such king of application since this is a sure way to provide the best performance as well as user experience to the users. In view of this, you need to consider multiplying the time of mobile app development depending on the number of operating systems that you like to cover. As a minimum, you need to double the cost in order to create both Android and iOS platforms.
Required Team Structure to Develop An App Like Instagram
To create an app similar to Instagram, you need a team of developers, UI/UX designers, technical lead, etc. Have a look at the team structure required to build such an app:
- Project Manager
- UI/UX designers for an app
- Frontend developers
- Backend developers
- QA testing experts
- Experts for Deployment & App store optimization
You can choose the number of experts depending upon your budget and time.
Final Cost of Instagram like App Development
Well, we have reached the stage where a bottom-line price can be calculated. The formula is rather simple. We are going to multiply the total time required by the hourly rate of the development team. Thus, we reach an approximately final sum of 50 thousand dollars. Well, we’ve finished for today.
Let’s Wrap Up:
So in this blog, we have seen various features, elements required to create an app like Instagram. The cost mentioned above is an approximate cost and liable to change depending upon your features requirement and the numbers of developers and designers in your project. One major aspect of the success of your app is the selection of custom mobile app development companies who have a track record of creating such applications.
