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Apple finally catches up with the rest of the world and joins Instagram

Apple gets a bit more social.

Patrick Kulp

on August 7, 2017

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Apple is getting a bit more social.

The notoriously social media-shy tech giant just launched a new Instagram account to showcase some of the best photos taken with the iPhone.

Like Apple's long-running "Shot on iPhone" campaign, @Apple will exclusively feature curated and credited photos from iPhone users all over the world. The company says product photo galleries, commercials or other company marketing will never appear on the account.

The idiosyncratic Cupertino company has long eschewed advertising on competitor platforms, but it's loosened up a bit on that stance in the past couple years. It's opened Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat accounts for Apple Music, Twitter accounts for iTunes and iBooks, and it had its long-dormant @Apple account officially verified last fall.

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The fledgling account was stocked with four videos at launch — one introductory post and three artist-narrated galleries.

#ShotoniPhone by… - 1. Mirabai M. @mirafilm “Beekeeping is incredibly addictive. Once you start, it’s very hard to stop. I think I’ll probably be a beekeeper for the rest of my life.” - 2. Jeremy S. @jeremysnell “I do show people the photos I take of them. A lot of these people have never really had their picture taken before, so this is really special to them. I think it opens people up in a new way, when they are able to see themselves in an image.” - 3. Daniil S. @daniil “I want to show the backstage - we’re surrounded by so much beauty that we take for granted. For us it’s so common. We don’t see the beauty anymore.” - 4. Marcelo N. @marcelonava “I like to walk, exploring a city, knowing every little space within the world.” - 5. Dave S. @davesandford “An adrenaline rush? Quite the opposite actually. I find swimming with sharks to be very peaceful.”

A post shared by apple (@apple) on Aug 7, 2017 at 5:10am PDT

#ShotoniPhone by… - 1. Paul O. @pauloctavious “I’ve just always been attracted to rainbows. It’s like magic. But now that I know how rainbows are made, it’s like I’m performing my own magic.” - 2. Tyrone P. @robotfaced “I’ve actually found two or three, or let’s say two and a half, species of chameleons that are not officially known to science. You can’t look in a text book or a field guide and find these animals. There’s simply not enough known about them.” - 3. Jirasak P @joez19 “I live in a small town and own a small trucking fleet in Thailand. I am not a professional photographer.” - 4. Jenn Z. @thesdcowgirl “I feel claustrophobic when I go to the city now. You get so used to being able to see for miles. I call it cowgirl church.” - 5. Yais Y. @_yaisyusman_ “I call the series The Hanging Collection. It's simply creating an illusion of a person hanging.”

A post shared by apple (@apple) on Aug 7, 2017 at 5:11am PDT

#ShotoniPhone by… - 1. Dawn D. @dawn_denfeld “When I was diagnosed with degenerative spinal arthritis, I needed to find a hobby that didn't require a lot of walking. Now, I love to capture water drop refractions and reflections on flowers, dandelions, and cobwebs that I gather from my garden.” - 2. Chinami M. @1000wave “My grandmother is constantly laughing whenever we shoot photos and I always enjoy seeing her smile. I’m just a greedy grandchild, hoping to squeeze as many smiles as I can.” - 3. Kevin R. @kevinruss “The sounds at this chapel were unlike any sounds I was hearing anywhere else. So I added sound to the photo just to have people feel what I felt.” - 4. John D. @abstractconformity "As captain of a ship, I go around the world. At times, we’ve gotten voyage instructions from the office and literally had to go get an atlas off the shelf cause we’re like, ‘Where in the world is this?’”

A post shared by apple (@apple) on Aug 7, 2017 at 5:13am PDT

#ShotoniPhone by… - 1. Kathy R. @kathyryan1 “It’s the New York Times building, in the middle of Times Square. It’s not an ordinary building, but it’s one building and honestly it could keep me occupied for life.” - 2. Gregg B. @greggboydston “I work for the United States Forest Service on the Hotshot Crew. We go to wildfires and help put them out.” - 3. Michael Z. @symmetrybreakfast “Since 2013, I have been making breakfast for my husband every day.” - 4. Khasar S. @inomad “I’m lucky that what Mongolia offers, even in the 21st Century, are people and cultures that still pass on centuries of tradition to future generations.”

A post shared by apple (@apple) on Aug 7, 2017 at 5:14am PDT

Instagram users can have their photos considered for a feature spot on the account by tagging them with the hashtag #ShotOnIphone. Apple says it will never use anyone's photos without their permission.

Apple's marketing material has been ramping up its emphasis on the creative capabilities of the iPhone in recent years with efforts like the "Shot on iPhone" campaign and in-store photography and video classes. The thinking seems to be that iPhone users who are more invested in device-related hobbies are more likely to care about increasingly incremental upgrades to its capabilities, and thus more likely to buy each new version of the phone.

Topics Apple Instagram iPhone Social Media

Patrick Kulp

Patrick Kulp is a Business Reporter at Mashable. Patrick covers digital advertising, online retail and the future of work. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara with a degree in political science and economics, he previously worked at the Pacific Coast Business Times.