Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

by Nir Eyal

Every time Yin snaps a picture, she shares it with her friends on Facebook. Consider the first time you saw an Instagram photo. Did it catch your attention? Did it make you curious? Did it call you to action? These photos serve as a relationship external trigger, raising awareness and serving as a cue for others to install and use the app. But Instagram photos shared on Facebook and Twitter were not the only external triggers driving new users. Others learned of the app from the media and bloggers, or through the featured placement Apple granted Instagram in its App Store—all earned external triggers. Once installed, Instagram benefited from owned external triggers. The app icon on users’ phone screens and push notifications about their friends’ postings served to call them back. With repeated use, Instagram formed strong associations with internal triggers, and what was once a brief behavior became an intraday routine for many users. It is the fear of losing a special moment that instigates a pang of stress. This negative emotion is the internal trigger that brings Instagram users back to the app to alleviate this pain by capturing a photo. Yet, as users continue to use the service, new internal triggers form. Instagram is more than a camera replacement; it is a social network. The app helps users dispel boredom by connecting them with others, sharing photos, and swapping lighthearted banter.14 Like many social networking sites, Instagram also alleviates the increasingly ...