Apple launched its first Instagram account Monday morning, exclusively featuring photos and videos shot using the iPhone. The account, which will curate photos tagged with the hashtag “#ShotOniPhone,” is meant to serve as inspiration for mobile photographers.
The feed will be curated by Apple from photos captured on an iPhone, with a credit and link back to the original photographer, and will never feature ads or promotions.
The Apple iPhone is the most popular camera in the world, responsible for over one trillion photographs every year. Two years ago, the company launched the “Shot on iPhone” campaign, celebrating the finest in community-generated phone photography and highlighting how the easy access and egalitarian nature of the iPhone’s camera has fundamentally changed our relationship with the medium.
The launch of the Apple Instagram account is a natural continuation of this. The process is simple: Instagram users tag their images with #ShotOniPhone hashtag and Apple will act as curator of its own channel, choosing the best images and recirculating them from its account.
Apple is likely hoping to capitalize on the increasing popularity of Instagram and Instagram Stories, which reached its first birthday earlier this month. A year after launch, Instagram Stories is now used by more people than Snapchat and the main Instagram app has more than 700 million users.
At launch, there are just nine posts, including a video post introducing the feed. Each post, however, is a gallery of images that you can swipe or click through – taking the total number of images to 40. The caption on each post explains who took each shot (in order) and a line about why they took it, or why they feel it’s such a good photo.
Diversity, Apple stresses, is key; whether amateur or professional, the platform and imagery will draw on all all subjects and walks of life, shining a light – or rather, pointing a lens – on Apple’s diverse community.
Check out Apple’s new Instagram account here.
