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Instagram flies past 700 million monthly active users

The photo app has added 100 million new users in just four months.
The photo app has added 100 million new users in just four months. The photo app has added 100 million new users in just four months.

Instagram now has more than 700 million monthly active users, the social media giant has revealed.

The Facebook-owned image-sharing platform said the 100 million users it has gained since December is the fastest growth in the app’s history.

Instagram first launched in 2010 and was bought by Facebook for $1 billion (£779m) in 2012.

The app is closing in on Facebook’s other services, including WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, both of which have over 1.2 billion active users each month.

It has drawn some criticism in recent months for a series of feature updates across its apps that appear to mimic similar features on Snapchat, the rival photo and video sharing service.

Camera and image editing features similar to those on Snapchat have appeared on Facebook and Messenger, while the disappearing messages feature that was first made popular on Snapchat has also appeared on Facebook and WhatsApp.

Instagram logo
Instagram logo
(Instagram/PA)

The firm said in announcing the milestone: “We’re thrilled to announce that our community has grown to more than 700 million Instagrammers. And the last 100 million of you joined faster than ever.

“We’ve made it even easier for people across the globe to join the Instagram community, share their experiences and strengthen connections to their friends and passions.

“With new features like stories, live video and disappearing messages in Direct, people now have more ways than ever to express themselves and feel closer to what matters to them.”