London (CNN Business)Instagram is celebrating its birthday by letting users switch to older icons of the app, including the classic retro camera logo that it sported when it first became a staple of smartphones worldwide.
Designs stretching back to Instagram’s early days are included in the feature, which will be available throughout October, as well as updated redesigns of the current logo that incorporate different colors and the Pride flag.A pre-launch logo bearing the title “Code name” is also included.
The new feature is well-hidden within the app, but Instagram teased it on its social channels on Tuesday — sending out a cryptic tweet in emojis that gave users instructions on how the access the logos.
🤫📲👉⚙️👀⬇️⬇️⬇️🥳🎁
— Instagram (@instagram) October 6, 2020
If a user of the app goes to the settings menu and scrolls right up to the top, a new screen appears showing a list of different options. Read MoreWhen one is selected, the new logo appears on the phone’s home screen. The app launched on October 6, 2010, with a short-lived logo that featured a mock-up of a Polaroid camera. It quickly switched to a brown icon that survived for several years, until Facebook bought the product and gave it a modern, purple redesign.
The app now features several alternative logos.”Birthdays are a good time to reflect on where we’ve been and where we’re headed,” the tech giant wrote in a blog post on its website Tuesday, adding that the company wants to “say a big thank-you to everyone who uses Instagram around the world.”Mark Zuckerberg last year announced plans to integrate Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The move could cement Facebook’s dominance over the messaging market for years to come, and arguably make it harder to break up the company.
But the firm is facing antitrust scrutiny in Washington DC, where lawmakers on Tuesday found that it, along with Amazon, Apple and Google, holds “monopoly power” in key business segments and has abused its dominance in the marketplace.Facebook said last month that it is currently testing the ability for Instagram and Messenger users to message or video chat with each other in select markets and will expand it globally in the coming months.
Source: edition.cnn.com
