Instagram is a free social networking platform available on both android and iPhone where

users can share pictures as well as videos with their followers and friends. It originated in San
Francisco by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in October 2010. It is a coalescence of “telegram”
as well as an “instant camera”. In 2021 Instagram reached two billion users and is continuing to
grow at a rapid rate. It is expected to grow to two and a half billion by the year 2023.

For instagram to work at such a large scale successfully it makes use of several computer
concepts to improve its functions. These concepts have developed and changed over time to
make the app more accessible. Even though instagram uses several of these concepts, this
essay will highlight only the seven main concepts it uses.

Computer concepts determine the functioning and workings of a computer. Most computers
follow similar concepts for all their workings.

Computation is a type of calculation that follows a certain algorithm. The device that performs
these calculations is defined as a computer. Cloud computing is used by instagram for a variety
of its app features . For example, a user can save and store profiles and photos in a database
with the help of cloud and other photo editing options created through photoshop.

The algorithm is the process that one uses to perform calculations and solve problems. They
are considered the basic building blocks of a computer which helps the computer to make
several decisions and solve problems. Instagram uses multiple algorithms, each used for a
different part of the app like posts,reels,etc. Instagram has changed its algorithm over the span
of five years. Currently instagram’s algorithm focuses mainly on five main interactions i.e time
spent, likes, comments, saves, taps on profile. Therefore instagram monitors every interaction
of the user so to serve content it believes the user will interact with.

Programming language is the computing language used by developers to execute and run
software on a computer. Instagram uses Python as the main programming language in one of
the biggest settings, as it is expected to serve 900 million dynamic users. Python is used across
web, frameworks and developers groups. It is considered as the first choice to the developers
when it's time to build huge,high performing and responsive web applications as it is trusted by
developers at the biggest tech companies like instagram itself.

Artificial intelligence is the replication of human intelligence which is programmed to think like
humans and impersonate their work such as learning and problem-solving. Instagram uses
artificial intelligence as their central for content review process, it can find and remove content
that follows against its community guidelines beforehand.
Machine learning is a rapidly growing technology that is a part of artificial intelligence also
known as AI that mainly focuses on applying data and algorithms to learn from past data in a
computer and use it to learn for themselves gradually improving its accuracy. Instagram uses
advanced machine learning to rank the content in posts,reels and stories.
Encryption is the process of scrabbling data to protect private and sensitive information and
amplify security between client apps and servers into incomprehensible text also known as
ciphertext. Instagram uses encrypted communication to prevent vindictive servers from
eavesdropping on the communication between user and instagram. It uses SSL/TLS over port
443 to encrypt data from the server and provide the user with the encrypted data stream.

Cybersecurity refers to protection of computers , securing related data and information from any
kind of misuse by an unauthorized server. Instagram uses a number of steps for protection of
data of their users like two-factor authentication , private accounts,login notifications,etc.

Modularization is the process of creating separation and clear boundaries between logical
code components. Instagram focuses on modularizing their function code. This is because
the function code represents the bulk of the code base and each function has a clear
boundary. Reducing dependencies between functions through modularity solves the
challenges of growing apps in many ways. One of the benefits is that it helps ensure that
the app's startup time doesn't increase as the amount of code in the app increases. Before
modularization, a chain of code references from one function to another risked loading all
the code when the app started. But by splitting up these references through modularization,
the user can use methods like lazy loading to wait for their code to load when they actually
need it.

Agile software development refers to implementing small pieces of working software quickly so
as to improve customer satisfaction The waterfall model divides project activities into linear,
sequential phases. They transfer to each other, each phase depends on the results of the
previous phase and corresponds to the specialization of the task. This approach is typical for
certain areas of engineering design .Instagram relied on the efficiency of the waterfall model.
After testing the app on mobile with real users and getting feedback from the user experience.
It used agile methodologies to eliminate the need for rapid changes such as truncation or add
functionality based on user input.
In this essay we will look at how these computing concepts have helped instagram and are
being employed by the company to better its performance. Some of the concepts being
explored are not part of the programme.

Instagram was originally intended for mobile devices. Therefore to register an instagram
account , the user needs to download an iphone or android app. After downloading the app the
user can easily login via facebook. After the user sign up they can change profile pictures and
edit information such as add 150 word short summary. Instagram accounts can be made private
but they are public by default.Like most social media apps, Instagram lets the user follow people
they are interested in. This will create a feed on the home page that shows the latest posts from
everyone the user follows. The user can like, comment on, and share posts. Instagram also
supports direct messages, so users can chat privately with their friends. One can also browse
profiles to see what other interests they have. Along the bottom there is a menu bar which has five
tabs i.e Home,Reels,shop,search and profile. Home tab consists of the news feed, search tab helps
to discover trending pictures and show the accounts the user may be interested in. On the reels tab
the user can find tik tok like videos from other instagram users. Shop tab is where the user can find
products to buy from instagram itself. Profile takes to the user’s own profile to edit their own profile
and go on settings.There are three main ways to interact with others on Instagram.Double-tap their
photo or video to like it. Users can leave a comment by clicking the speech bubble icon below the
photo. Users can send direct messages. To direct message someone, tap the arrow icon next to the
speech bubble icon. On Instagram, one can tag people in photos, reply with tags to comments, add
hashtags. To start sharing, go to the Camera/Upload (+ icon) button in the top right corner of the
Home tab and select Posts, Stories, Reels, and Live.

When the user selects a post to upload on their instagram account. One can see the option to
upload the picture or video from the camera roll or take a shot from instagram itself. Once the user
selects a photo or video they can also add filters and different effects on their picture and can also
play with the intensity of the filter. Once the user is done with the editing , tap the next button to
share the post. They can also tag people , add a caption , add location and so on. Instagram
integrates with Facebook, Twitter,Tumblr, and Flickr, so the user can simply toggle each one on
and off to share to these social networks also.

Instagram also has a feature of putting stories where the user can put multiple pictures and
videos which can also be edited, users can also put filters , masks stickers on them. These
stories disappear after 24 hours. The user can also view stories of other people simply by
looking for their latest update at the top of the home tab.

Instagram proposed a new feature called Reels. It is basically a trendy, short form of musical
videos that is similar to TikTok videos. Users can record and edit these clips, one can also add
music to the video or even audio from someone else’s video. Reels is not a new app,it's an
addition to the instagram app at core so the user doesn’t have to download anything except for
the latest version of Instagram itself.

Going live on instagram is pretty straightforward, just swipe right from the home tab to open the
camera , tap the start live video option and start sharing. The user can go live for up to one hour
and the video will disappear as soon as the stream stops. Followers get notification as soon as
the user starts a live video. Users can also add other people to their live video.
Instagram has also become a one-stop-shop. During checkout, users will be asked for
shipping information, contact information, payment information, and details of all of these.

Since 2010 instagram has been using AWS until Instagram installed and ran its software on
Amazon's cloud computing platform. The cloud has allowed instagram to be more efficient, try
new experiments at a very low cost, and grow the site significantly with a very small team it ran
on Amazon’s cloud computing service Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) allowing it to build and run
it’s own servers without the help of any external server. Instagram later migrated thousands of
its running AWS EC2 instances to Amazon's Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) in 3 weeks with zero
downtime. This was a very meticulous task and required the development of custom virtual
network software to accomplish it. This is one of the fastest and largest EC2 to VPC migrations.

Instagram uses a different algorithm for each part of the app therefore feed works differently
from the explore page algorithm and so on. This is because how users typically interact with
different parts of the app varies. This system ensures that the user experience is very
personalized to the user’s preferences. Instagram’s algorithm uses all the data like user
activity,interaction history,popularity of the post in terms of likes, how much have the user
interacted with that account, etc to make predictions on how likely is the user to interact with
a given post.
Instagram uses Python in one of the world’s largest settings by applying it to implement the
“business logic”. It uses a reference application of Python called CPython as the runtime to
execute the code. It is great for fast replication so as to make changes and observe the
result without compiling the code.It's best suited for small teams with small code bases that
can maintain good usage discipline and need to move to a less dynamic language.

Instagram's machine learning and other artificial intelligence concepts can analyze rich
business information and usage-based insights from customer usage statistics. Instagram
developers are constantly adjusting these algorithms to help users see what matters most
to them.We have custom Instagram machine learning algorithms that control what content
is displayed on each page for each user. Instagram feeds, Explores, Stories, and Reels
behave differently based on custom algorithms.

Instagram uses End to end encryption to add extra security to user’s messages,calls so no
unauthorized server can use them. When a user sends a message in an end-to-end
encrypted chat their device locks the message while it's sending which can be unlocked by
the authorized user only. This works for video and audio chats on instagram as well.
Therefore no one can read the message or hear calls except for the authorized user.

Instagram uses two factor authentication to protect user’s accounts by asking for a code in case
of any login attempt, it sends the code on an authentication app recommended by instagram
itself or as a text message or on whatsapp. After the user turns on the two factor authentication
they will be able to track login requests and can remove devices. If the user loses access to
their mobile phones,email and are unable to login using codes they can use backup code to log
in to their accounts.

Instagram is a platform that is used by several people globally. For the app to work successfully
on such a large scale, a lot of actions need to be taken. Thus, instagram makes use of these
computer concepts to make sure the app works well. Even though the concepts look at/deal
with different parts of instagrams working, they all come together in the end to make instagram
a better app for its users. From cyber security to coding, instagram employs a diverse range of
computer concepts to engage with its users. The concepts explored in the essay are just seven
of many that instagram uses on a daily basis. These concepts are embedded in the very
working of the app itself, without which instagram would not be one of the most used social
media apps of this generation. Computer concepts are known to enhance the features of a
particular work of technology, and in this case it has done exactly that by making instagram
more user friendly and likable.

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