Close to half of Instagram's 100 million+ users are on Android
Originally launched in October 2010 as an iPhone exclusive, Instagram quickly became a runaway success. The photo sharing app was a personal favorite of Apple's Phil Schiller and was chosen as Apple's 2011 iPhone app of the year. Rather quickly, the app amassed millions of users and was held up by Apple enthusiasts as an example of why the iOS ecosystem was superior to Android's.
Instagram's iOS exclusivity, however, wasn't destined to last. After 17 months as an iOS-only application, the Instagram team finally released Instagram for Android on April 3, 2012.
One year later, close to half of Instagram's now 100 million+ users are on Android.
In a blog post detailing the achievements of Instagram for Android over the past 12 months, Instagram team member Philip McAllister wrote:
One year ago today we launched Instagram for Android. In less than a day, over a million people downloaded the app, and now nearly half of all Instagrammers use the Android app to share photos with friends, family and the world.
That's quite an impressive feat.
As for Schiller, you might remember that he deleted his Instagram account shortly after the app hit Android. For what it's worth, Schiller subsequently explained that his decision had nothing to do with Android per se, but was rather the result of Instagram getting a bit too big for his liking.
At the time, 9to5Mac was able to get in touch with Schiller who explained his decision.
Instagram is a great app and community. That hasn't changed.
But one of the things I really liked about Instagram was that it was a small community of early adopters sharing their photographs.
Now that it has grow(n) much larger the signal to noise ratio is different. That isn't necessarily good or bad, it's just not what I originally had fun with.
Going forward, it'll be interesting to see if and when the number of active Instagram users on Android surpasses the number of Instagram users on iOS. For those keeping score at home, iOS amassed a 30 million user head start during the 17 months it was an iOS exclusive.
