Last week Instagram made some major reveals about their future. The biggest and most shocking reveal was when Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said the words "We're no longer a photo sharing app" during an Instagram Live on June 30th. WHAT?! Back in 2010 Instagram was created as a place online where you only shared photos, setting it apart from Facebook. So what does this revelation mean for the app and what sort of content will it prioritize now? And most importantly, why did Instagram decide to make this change?
Video Will Be the Priority on Instagram
For the first time, Mosseri publicly claimed that TikTok is Instagram's competition. We've all known that, especially after Instagram dropped their TikTok copycat - Reels. But now the app is making it clear that video is going to be prioritized on the app. When users open Instagram, they won't open up to a feed of their friends' photos - but rather a feed of videos suggested to them by Instagram's algorithm. This is a massive change, and to be honest, we're not sure how we feel about it. The different social media apps seem to be morphing into one as they all try to capitalize on the way TikTok has taken over our attention spans.
Instagram claims they're making this change because people come to their app to be entertained, so they're going to give them entertainment. Right now, entertainment is in the form of videos - not static pictures. Watch Mosseri's full video below.
As you saw in the video, Instagram also plans to prioritize creators, eCommerce, and private messaging in this next stage of the app's life. It's good to know that Instagram wants to ensure that people who make money on Instagram are still supported in doing so ... but changing up the way the app prioritizes content and what the content form is will be quite the challenge for influencers who have perfected that infamous square photo post. This will be a major learning curve for influencers who haven't been forced into the Reels space or TikTok to stay relevant to their niche. They'll need to start pumping out video content ASAP to continue to land brand deals.
Instagram Has to Stay Relevant
The good thing about all of this? Instagram isn't getting stuck in the past. As much as we'll mourn the beauty of an aesthetic feed and the value of photography online, we're glad that the app realizes that it was nearing irrelevance and is taking steps to change that. We're also glad that Instagram plans on being transparent and communicative about all of these upcoming changes, which has not been their M.O. in the past. Mosseri said, “Now we have an idea of where we want to end up in a half a year or a year’s time, but I’m sure things are going to change many times between now and then. This isn’t something that we can just do overnight. So you’ll see us iterate and try and be very public about what we’re doing and why with videos like this one.”
We'll be watching out for Mosseri's face to pop up on our feeds, and we'll keep breaking it down for you here at Media A La Carte.
