Instagram, an app founded with the fundamental purpose of sharing your photos and videos with your friends and family, has today taken the entire globe by storm. I guess explaining more about this widespread app won’t be necessary, as I am sure you must already know it.
Statista reveals that Instagram has 88.48 million active monthly users in the US alone. Crazy, right?
Now are you looking to replicate Instagram’s success? Well, if you are seeking to build a similar app to Instagram, you need to come with some impressive reasons to build it and why do you think your app will succeed.
It true that a big market share is already captured by giants like Facebook, Instagram, etc. however, this doesn’t imply that there is no space left for the newcomers. But yes, of course your mobile app needs to be different in order to stand tall among the competition.
Just consider Snapchat. Snapchat comes with 2 superior reasons for being so widely used- the ability to share images in real time along with the provision of having a quick chat. This unified with a couple of cool filters and guess what you have? A billion dollar product. So what do you comprehend from this example? Well, Snapchat teaches us that there are tons of spaces available for beginners.
The enormity of Instagram does not validate its irreplaceability. After all, it also started from a few couple of users only. So, concentrate on your app idea and try to devise new ways of engaging the internet community.
To assist you further, we have compiled this post, which will help you in gathering significant information as to how much money will go into creating an app like Instagram from scratch. Let’s start with the basics first.
Some Must Have Features
Before getting to the cost aspect, it is important to conduct a brief general discussion on how to build an app like Instagram. So, let us look at some recognized features of Instagram and also discuss the basic “must-haves” of every photo sharing app.
- Social Media Integration
Of course, seamless social media integration should be the prime priority of all photo/video sharing apps. Users wish to share their posts with the people they know. So, your app should offer the facility to:
- Upload photos on several social media platforms simultaneously
- Input geolocation
- Option to tag people
Your app should eliminate the need for the users to go through the boring uploading process on different apps. This stage of development will take almost less than 10 hours.
- Creating & customizing User’s Profiles
This option should begin with a possibility of signing up through Facebook or any other social media account so that the users need not input all his personal information time and again. Also, there should be an option of letting the users adjust the app as per their own preferences. This entire stage will call for 20 to 120 hours of the developer’s effort.
- Chat & Photo Sharing
Well, this is an obvious feature. If the main reason why users download your app is the wish to share pictures, you also need to integrate a feature of seamless communication to help the users interact with each other at the same time. However, you need to devise novel and alluring ways in which the users can post and exchange their pictures in order to enhance your app’s value. This will take up to 130 development hours.
- A Comprehensive Set of Designing/Editing Options
As you know, Instagram comes with a comprehensive set of photo editing options and filters that help in making the pictures even more intriguing. This is one of the significant reasons for its success.
People love experimenting and playing with different photo effects. You can add some already known filters to your app which will take about 48 hours and also create some brand new ones which will take about 15 hours each.
- Safety
An assurance of complete protection of all your personal pictures and information and prevention of any probabilities of hacking is a huge need these days. The more time and effort you pitch into that, the higher price you pay but security on internet is one of the biggest virtues nowadays.
- Customization
If you want to develop an app similar to Instagram, you really need to think out of the box and come up with an exclusive product so as to engage the users with something fresh and new. Allow for an opportunity where the users can create personal customizations. This can help your app stand tall among the competition. This stage will take almost 90-120 hours of work, minimum.
Digging Deep into the Cost Specifics
What we have discussed above are some essential ideas that may give birth to hundreds of distinct app interpretations. And therefore, the cost of each project will vary a lot. Even if we create a clone app with the exactly same features as the prototype, the developer will have to pitch in twice the efforts to bring out the uniqueness of the product. So, the precise estimation of all financial investments will directly depend upon the number of features integrated.
Now, we shall generalize our discussion and talk about some essential criteria that you can actually plan far ahead. Generally, the cost of an app depends upon the number of working hours expended by the developer in developing all options that you want in your product. And the time, in turn, depends upon the complexity of the issue.
So, if you are a startup business, it is highly recommended that you begin your journey with creating a simple app that has a prodigious potential to grow into something greater. Creating a comprehensive map for all your targets and ideas is a good way to go.
This way, you will know how your app does as it hits the market and at the same time, you have a possibility to improve the things that need to be improved. Cost of your app will also vary with the platform you choose for developing it- whether it is Android or iOS, the cost for both will be different.
Another pointer, the location of the developing company has a big impact on the cost. For instance, the price you pay to the developers for custom app development in India will hugely vary from the price you pay in America.
Final Thoughts
Through this post, we have tried our best to shed some light on the most important and common matters when it comes to developing a proficient photo and video sharing iPhone or android app. Such apps have become quite a buzz among the users and developing one can certainly help you set up a big channel for an ongoing revenue stream.
