Instagram on its way to becoming a video and entertainment platform — ‘it's no more a photo-sharing app,’ says company chief

• Instagram chief Adam Mosseri posted a video announcing an overview of the company's plan for the near future.
  
• The social media platform is “no more a photo-sharing app,” said the company head.
  
• It will focus on video and entertainment.

Instagram is working towards making major changes in the app, hints Instagram head Adam Mosseri. The social media firm’s chief announced the key focus areas going forward and also dropped a hint that Instagram is no longer just a "square photo-sharing app" and what it is aiming to become in the future.

Mosseri, in a video posted on Twitter and Instagram, shared an overview of the company's plan for the second half of 2021. He emphasised that the social media platform will be working towards entertainment and videos like its competitors — Google’s Youtube, and Chinese app TikTok and other new entrants. He said the company is "trying to build new experiences primarily in four areas — creators, videos, shopping and messaging". He added that the company surveys show that more people use Instagram to get entertained and that's where Instagram's future seems to be leaning towards.


The announcement doesn't come as a surprise because Instagram has seen massive changes recently, and the transition from photos-only to videos has also been evident for more than a couple of years. Instagram started with video posts, followed by full-screen videos via IGTV — its YouTube equivalent for mobiles. The IGTV experiment didn't turn out to be as promising, and the fast-growing popularity of TikTok also looked like a major threat. In no time, Instagram introduced its mobile-first short video format called ‘Reels’ to rival TikTok, and it was soon followed by its parent company Facebook as well.

Opening Instagram will flood you with videos in the recommended feed right now. As Mosseri said, videos are here to take over still photos, but there will be some changes to how the platform serves you with content recommendations. In the coming months, users will see recommendations from sources they may not be watching or following.

Going by the recent changes in the app and what company chief Mosseri says, we expect the platform to go through a major overhaul — whether it's for good or bad is to be decided by the users. With deeper e-commerce integration, increased focus on videos and messaging, it would be interesting to see how Instagram keeps the user experience intact.

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