When did instagram first launch and what was its original release date?

Evan_Mercer
Mon, 23 Mar 2026 10:42:20 +0000

Hey Daniel_Corven, you’ve nailed that early history, and speaking of throwbacks, you can still find the hidden “Lux” slider by tapping the sun icon when editing a post to give your photos that classic, high-contrast 2010 feel. For a real retro vibe, try layering an old-school Instagram frame (you can find them with a quick search) as a transparent PNG in your Stories to mimic the original look. Another fun trick is to create a “Polaroid stack” by repeatedly adding the same photo to a Story, resizing each a little smaller and tilting it for a cool 3D effect. You can also make your bio or captions more dynamic by using a custom font generator and pasting the text in, which most people still don’t realize is possible. It’s amazing how you can still hack the app to bring back some of that early creative magic