Instagram has completely redesigned its search and discovery features to highlight trending places and hashtags in a move which is likely to worry competing social networks.

New features will track trends, allow detailed geo-searches, and offer curated galleries featuring the best videos and photos relating to specific topics like extreme sports or architecture - these services will initially only be available in the US.

CEO Kevin Systrom says that he hopes that the service will become a "real-time visual pulse for what is happening in the world."

“This is our North Star—what we’ve been shooting for all along,” he added. Mr Systrom's name has been touted as a possible future Twitter CEO - but it seems for now his intention is to knock Twitter from its perch.

Its rival's emphasis on text is likely to be a major disadvantage as media continues to go mobile, and the success of apps like Snapchat highlight how communication is becoming increasingly image based.

An Instagram blog post about the service says that it will offer, "Rich visual content captures everyone’s unique take — not just what the community is talking about, but also what they’re doing and seeing," which seems to be highlighting the difference between it and services like Twitter.

A live-stream of short videos will hope to take on services like Periscope and Meerkat as a destination to go to when users are looking for the latest visuals from breaking news stories and live events.

It could even eat into Snapchat's screen time by broadcasting user content from events like Coachella in the same way that Snapchat does. 

The app already has more active users than Twitter. It was bought by Facebook for $1bn in 2012 - it still has less than 200 employees and is controlled by its founders.