Instagram recently faced some backlash, because it did not allow users to download their content posted to the site, and port it to another site. Now Instagram has announced that it’s going to build a tool for users to download their content and take it elsewhere. The tool would allow users to download their photos, videos and messages and take them wherever they want. Making it a bit easier for users to jump ship to a competitor.
Lately, Instagram’s parent company, Facebook, has been receiving a bit of a backlash over the data harvesting that Cambridge Analytica did of its users. Which has forced many people to delete their Facebook app and even leave it altogether. Though, for some, that also means leaving Instagram and perhaps WhatsApp. So adding this tool is something that Instagram probably doesn’t want to do, but it’s better that they do, before it ends up with a bigger issue over privacy and being a monopoly – something that Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, was asked about during his Congressional Testimony this week. Though there really aren’t any competitors to Instagram right now, but that could change in the near future, especially if Facebook doesn’t get this data harvesting scandal under control.
Instagram has historically made it hard to download your own content. For example, you can’t download or save your own images after you have posted them. Instead, you need to screenshot and then crop the image. Of course, that doesn’t work with video. Which means once you have uploaded to Instagram, unless you have the original file, you don’t have a way to share that same photo elsewhere. That’s a feature that Facebook actually added back in 2010, the same year that Instagram got started. So it’s a bit odd that Instagram doesn’t allow you to download or save your own content. However this new tool should fix that issue. Instagram has not said when specifically the tool will be available, just that the company is working on it and will release it in the near future.