Instagram is “no longer a photo-sharing app”, says Head of Instagram

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri posted a video on both his Twitter and Instagram accounts to announce some “upcoming changes and experiments” for the platform. In his video, he stated that Instagram—which started as a photo-sharing app—is “no longer a photo-sharing app”.

“I want to start by saying we’re no longer a photo-sharing app, or a square photo-sharing app. The number one reason people say they use Instagram in research is to be entertained. So, people are looking to us for that,” said Mosseri.

He mentions that the social media app is focused on four key areas—creators, video, shopping and messaging. And they are “trying to build new features” to help lean into those areas.

At the moment, we don’t have much information on how Instagram plans to move forward. But Mosseri said that Instagram wants to “embrace video more broadly”, they could be investing more in Reels, IGTV and Stories.

Mosseri also mentions that TikTok and YouTube are “serious competition”, so he plans to “embrace” the change to video from being just a photo-sharing app. And I have to say—I have rarely posted a photo on Instagram since the pandemic started and there have been less opportunities to go out and take pictures. So, keeping updated through Stories is the main reason to why I’m still on Instagram.

“We have an idea of where we want to end up in half a year, or a year’s time and I’m sure thing’s are going to change many times between now and then. It isn’t something that we can just do overnight,” continued Mosseri.

Instagram announced in February that they won’t promote TikTok videos on Reels through a new algorithm. But currently, I’m still seeing a few recycled TikToks being posted on the platform.

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