Cloning Instagram: What I’ve Learned So Far

Lately I’ve been working on projects to buff up my portfolio. One of which is an Instagram Clone.

Now why would I work on a clone vs something original? While I have some originals as well I thought it would be good for me to understand an application that I use from the ground up. I use it daily, I’ve used it for years, and it allows me to not only practice what I know but learn more about databases and mobile development.

That’s what I’m learning the most, especially while using Expo so that I can interact with my clone on my phone. Mobile development requires more consideration. While browsers are something to consider, anyone can get most browsers onto their computers/devices. But mobile development? Not only do you need to consider Android or iOS but device type.

Device type? Yeah. Device type. Instagram has an app for the phone but not to iPad. Now, understandable since you can still use the iphone app but get a wonky look on the ipad or just use their web application but….the web app isn’t as pretty to use. Which, granted isn’t a big deal to most people but I think aesthetics is a big part of Instagram and it’s appeal. Really the appeal of many of the popular mobile apps.

Apart from the great Android or iOS and the device decision, there is something else I’m learning and seeing as I create this application. How can it be more neurodivergent accessible? How can I do that with my future projects? Which has led me to consider what would be helpful for me but also reach out to other neurodivergent friends and ask the same of them about apps they use. I’m learning to really thing from a user centric perspective on top of just “Is it intuitive?” “Is my code dry?” “Does it look nice?”

As I go on with the project and continue to learn the technichal things like how to use Firebase for user authentication, how to use Expo in development, how to use React Native, etc I’ll continue to learn and pick up the less technical aspects of software development.