If I had to, I’d go as far as to say I’m a power user for Instagram, but comparing myself to others, I know it’s not the case. I am however, a huge fan and frequent user. In the list of my most frequently used apps, I find myself active daily on Instagram much more than Facebook, but not nearly as much as Twitter, seeing as I consume majority of my content Twitter.
Almost every moment of mine is shared to the big social networks from Instagram, though. I use Facebook, pretty much the way Facebook wants me to. I share thoughts and other content in statuses and actively communicate with family and friends. Snapshotting a photo, editing in VSCO, and pushing to social networks, including Facebook.
While doing so not long ago, I realized something peculiar: All of the moments Facebook so desperately wants me to log, are technically done through Instagram with the capture of a photo. So naturally, my next question was, “Considering Facebook acquired Instagram, why don’t they use this to their advantage?”. Granted, I’m sure there are a ton of other reasons the acquisition happened—from user base, to the image technology, and of course huge amounts of data. Although I don’t have the specifics, I couldn’t imagine that tracking people’s “moments” wasn’t one of them.
So I decided to lend it some thought as to how it would work if we could make the the most out of Instagram posts on Facebook—how sharing could be made more personal. With that said, I’d like to introduce you to “Moments” on Instagram:
Integrating Moments
The idea behind it is to add “Life Events” directly from Instagram. Once shared to Facebook, Facebook would log the instagram post as a “Life Event” and post it on your Timeline. I took some time to solidify the idea, along with other areas within the app it would effect, and created some rough designs to showcase it.
Fitting into the current layout
Much like tagging a friend and other meta data added to your photo, it can all be done in the "Share" screen right before you post your photo. On an iPhone 5S (and up) everything is still within view, with no scrolling necessary on the main UI.
From your settings, you’ll be able to choose whether or not the life event is embedded onto your Facebook profile as a life event.
Your Feeds
There are three feeds you can peruse on Instagram; news, profile and discover.
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News - Much like the visual for a tagged person in the photo, the visual for an added life event will appear on top of the photo upon tapping, in your news feed or photo detail view.
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Profile - At the moment, there are two pictos in the options bar to switch from grid view and single item view. I consolidated the two into one (tapping it would switch the view and the picto). I also added a "Life Event" pictogram which would show only images with a life event added—essentially the same as the "tagged" tab.
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Discover - As it stands, the discover feed is generated by a few different parameters:
- Based on those you follow
- Popular in general
- Based on photos you like
I think that covers them all?
Truly Discovering
After experimenting and following a ton of Vizsla profiles (Proud owner of a Vizsla and liking close to nothing except vizsla photos, my discover feed is suddenly flooded with them—which great. However, if I liked several of my friends photos, that will also cloud my discover feed, even if I am uninterested in what was happening and only did so solely to show support. Seeing photos of mainly that is exactly the opposite of what I want.
With integrated moments, the discovery tab could ideally primarily be tailored to and consist of:
- Your life events
- Similar life events
- Popular photos in general
More often than not, those are the ones we truly want to see and engage with. In the end, the one thing everyone dislikes is a feed flooded with content that doesn't appeal.
Onward to Facebook
The amount of information I showcased is minimal compared to the options given on Facebook when adding a life event—and that was intentional. The best part about Instagram is how simple it is to add and share a photo, which is not something that should be changed. To avoid adding more to the UI, moments would make the best use out of Facebook’s technology.
Facebook would pull data from the photo description, look for keywords to extract and embed them into the form fields typically requested on the life event when you add it on their app. With that method, using this particular “Got a Pet” case, Facebook would be able to pull the following data from the post:
- Name (From Description)
- Breed (From Description based on database)
- When (Assumes date photo is posted)
- With (Using tagged friends)
- Location (Using location option)
- Story/Description (Using Description in post)
It’s technically possible. Everything is technically possible with Facebook. From there, pending you allowed Instagram to share to your account, it would create a life event on your timeline, enabling you to share your moment with everyone.
Since the days of disposable cameras and photos albums (what a time to be alive), we’ve yearned to create and share our moments. Now, we can do so easier than ever, on-the-go with our phones, with the help of platforms like Instagram. Then, we share them on other social networks like Facebook. And if we can combine the two, to make these moments more detailed and personal, why not do so?
I made a quick prototype on Marvel so you can get a feel of what the funnel might be. Play around with it.
Your thoughts and feedback would be awesome. I’m always up for chatting more on Twitter @imcatnoone. Oh and Instagram team, kudos on a kick-ass, beautiful app.