Get ready to see more videos on Instagram. The Facebook-owned app is preparing to push more video content to users, citing competition from rivals like TikTok and YouTube.
“We are no longer a photo-sharing app or a square photo-sharing app,” said Instagram head Adam Mosseri in a video on Wednesday.
Instead, the app is trying to adapt with the times. While tweets, photos, and article-sharing still occupy an important place in social media, it’s clear video and live streaming is attracting throngs of internet users.
Content isn’t necessarily king, but entertainment is, according to Mosseri. “The number one reason people say that they use Instagram in research is to be entertained. So people are looking to us for that,” he said. “Because let’s be honest, there’s some really serious competition right now. TikTok is huge, YouTube is even bigger, and there's a lot of other upstarts as well.”
Instagram has already been leaning into videos with Reels, a TikTok-like function that lets you create and upload short video clips. In addition, the app has a dedicated button that lets you watch Reels nonstop.
To embrace videos even more, the app is going to experiment with recommending additional video clips in your Instagram feed. “So showing you things in Feed that you may not be following yet,” Mosseri said. Another idea involves asking users what topics they’d like to see in video format.
“We’re also going to be experimenting with how do we embrace video more broadly. Full-screen, immersive, entertaining, mobile-first video,” he added. Expect the experiments to take place in the coming months.