Instagram has always been a photo app and never thought of going beyond the app. It opened a web version but only for checking photos. For uploading new photos, you always needed the Instagram app.
Now the company is thinking seriously about international growth. So, it has given its mobile website a massive upgrade. Now you can upload photos to your Instagram account using the mobile site.
Until now, users could only browse, follow, search, see notifications and like photos from the mobile site and desktop site. The desktop site still has no option for posting, but mobile web got this option.
Mobile site still lacks the features like video uploads, filters, direct messaging and stories. I am not sure about others, but filters must be added as soon as possible.
Instagram’s global growth strategy aimed at getting 80% of its users outside of the US. The majority of the people in emerging countries use entry-level devices with low storage. So, they are less likely to install too many apps. So giving them options for using the mobile web to access Instagram’s core feature will be helpful.
We can also expect Instagram to introduce the Instagram Lite app for emerging markets. Facebook experimented with Messenger Lite and Facebook Lite and saw a good response.
