Instagram Changes Brand Guidelines to Discourage App Copycats
For Instagram, imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery.
The social network for enhancing and sharing photos and videos updated its brand guidelines this week to forbid other apps that connect to the service not only from featuring its logo or any design that “copies the look and feel” of the brand but now also from using either “Insta” or “Gram” in their names.
Representatives sent emails to third-party apps guilty of these infractions informing them of the new guidelines and asking that they change the offending characteristics. TechCrunch published a message received by Luxogram, a web-based Instagram client with a million users, in which the app is taken to task for brand similarities that until recently weren’t considered a violation of policy. TechCrunch notes:
The two new points that Instagram indicates that Luxogram is treading on are the fact that it uses “gram” in its name, and that (a highly customized variant of) the camera logo is being used. Instagram notes that a response to the email is expected within 48 hours and that a “reasonable period” will be provided to fix these items.
According to TechCrunch, Luxogram’s creator says he isn’t likely to make all of the changes Instagram wants, so he will probably shut down his app. Other services that will have to make the choice between packing it in or completely rebranding are Statigram, Webstagram, Gramfeed, and Instagallery, to name just a few.
Of course, Instagram can only crack down on the apps that use its API and wish to continue that relationship. The new guidelines don’t apply to the brands or names of apps that don’t connect to Instagram—or to those such as Luxogram that will opt to discontinue that connection.
Instagram’s entire name has always been protected as a trademark. But strangely, until these new brand guidelines, using either “Insta” or “Gram” in an app’s name was actually encouraged by its API terms of use. Instagram wanted to get its brand out there to become a household name and attract more users.
Maybe now that it’s owned by Facebook, Instagram feels it has other avenues of growth that don’t involve the little guys. No one can really blame those behind the decision for wanting to safeguard what proved to be a very valuable brand, but these connected apps are what helped Instagram get to be worth so much in the first place.
If the story of a popular social networking site revamping its guidelines to distance itself from third-party developers sounds oddly familiar, that’s because we’ve heard it before. Last year, Twitter restricted many longtime apps and services that relied on the once-open platform. We’ll see whether developers fall out of love with Instagram the way many did after getting the cold shoulder from Twitter’s API.
What do you think? Is limiting partnerships with third-party apps just the next logical step in building a major brand? Or is forbidding the use of “Insta” and “Gram” as silly as trademarking the word “Cronut”? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
