You used to not be able to access the camera or camera roll from webapps on iOS. The only way to take or upload photos was with a native app. The file upload i

You used to not be able to access the camera or camera roll from webapps on iOS. The only way to take or upload photos was with a native app. The file upload input control on websites simply did not work on an iPhone. This is a relatively recent development. I'm fairly convinced it didn't happen sooner in an anticompetitive move to promote native apps over the open web. (Same with web push notifications and a million other tiny things.) Instagram did not and could not have had a webapp in those days (which is a majority of the time Instagram has existed).