Instagram develops app for Apple Watch

Instagram, which built a billion-dollar business on smartphones, is making its first foray into wearable technology with a new app for the Apple Watch.

The popular photo-sharing app, which is owned by Facebook, will use the smartwatch to help users keep up with their closest friends through alerts as soon as they post a picture.

The move is notable because Instagram has so far stayed away from wearable devices, including Google's Glass headset and smartwatches such as Samsung's Galaxy Gear range.

But recreating its feed of pretty, magazine-like photographs for the Apple Watch's tiny screen prompted a complete rethink of its app, according to Instagram designer Ian Silber, to create "the simplest feed we could think of".

"I think the Watch is really about quick information and notifications," Mr Silber told the Financial Times. "It's a huge use case that's going to be a little bit different."

Instagram has already become the go-to app for celebrities to post photos of themselves wearing Apple's high-priced Edition gold watch, including pop stars Drake, Pharrell Williams and Katy Perry, as well as fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.

Just as Instagram displaced photo-sharing networks on desktop PCs such as Flickr, the arrival of a new app platform presents a potential threat of fresh challengers to what has become the dominant incumbent.

But with Apple's own Watch apps focusing on health tracking and sending messages, Instagram was initially unsure whether its service would be at home on the new device.

After convening a "war room" of engineers and designers, including input from its founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Instagram began to try "a lot of sort of hacky things" to see what might work.

With no Apple Watch device in Instagram's offices to test apps on, designers experimented by creating prototypes on an iPhone screen that showed nearby photos or a list of the most popular pictures. Eventually, Instagram pared back the scope of its app to "something that feels pretty simple", to avoid overwhelming users of the new device.

"With the Watch, it's about thinking about interactions in terms of seconds," Mr Silber said, adding that users will only get notifications for a handful of the people they follow. "It's really about get in and get out."

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"Developing for the Watch is definitely fun but they kept it pretty scoped and limited," Mr Silber said. "That's smart because it helps shape the types of apps that come out in version one . . . You don't want an app with a ton of features on your watch, you want one screen that tells you the most important information."

Other leading internet companies including ride-hailing company Uber, Shazam, the music identification app, and Yahoo have also redesigned their apps for the Watch, although Google - Apple's main rival in smartphones and smartwatches - has not yet indicated whether it will join them.

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