Instagram's name combines 'instant camera' with what word?

Instagram combines “instant camera” with “telegram.” The name is a portmanteau intended to suggest both quick photography and sending images to other people.

The name fit the app’s original purpose. Instagram was designed as a mobile photo-sharing service, allowing users to capture an image, apply a filter, and publish it rapidly. “Instant camera” evokes the immediacy and physical photography culture associated with quick snapshots, while “telegram” suggests communication across distance.

The service did not begin under this name. Systrom and Krieger first developed Burbn, a broader check-in application. After deciding that Burbn was too complicated and too close to Foursquare, they focused on photos and renamed the streamlined product Instagram before its public release in 2010.

“Photogram” may sound plausible because the service centers on photographs, but it is not the documented origin of the name. “Telegram” is the intended second word, not a reference to the later Telegram messaging application.