Instagram Major Update: “We’re No Longer A Photo Sharing App”
The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, shared last Thursday (July 1) Instagram’s plan to expand the app into more areas than just photo sharing.
He announces the company’s plans to expand further into the following key areas:
- Creators – Instagram will now help creators earn a living with the new monetization features of Instagram. He stated that the company recognizes that there’s a shift in focus from institutions to individuals across industries, and Instagram is leaning in that direction.
- Video – One of the major formats right now that they’ve seen an immense amount of growth online across all major platforms.
- Shopping – Probably the most surprising one, this is the third area of prioritization of Instagram. According to Adam Mosseri, the shift of commerce from offline to online accelerated since the pandemic and they wanted to capitalize on that.
- Messaging – Another surprising focus for them is messaging, which Mosseri stated has become the primary function of users to connect with their networks and friends on the app. Additionally, according to them, DMs have been the main way of communication by users instead of feed posts and stories.
Bigger plans and challenges for Videos on Instagram
Adam Mosseri stated as well in the video they posted on Twitter: “We’re no longer a photo-sharing app,” before discussing the company’s plans for video.
According to Instagram’s research, the number one reason people use Instagram is to get entertained. And that’s the main thing that people are looking for every time they are using Instagram.
And to give the users what they want, which is entertainment via videos. Instagram will be focusing more on it. Adam Mosseri also acknowledges that TikTok and YouTube have become serious competition for Instagram and says that the company will work hard to get on the same level as their competition.
He also shared that Instagram is embracing a huge challenge by working on a number of changes in the app that will roll out in the near future. One of which is distributing content and introducing us users to a variety of content creators.
They will be also experimenting with recommendations on the app over the next couple of months and this involves the app showing us users content on our feed from accounts we haven’t followed yet.
Adam Mosseri also added that Instagram will also be experimenting with how videos are used as a content format. He briefly touches on this topic and what to expect:
“We’re also going to be experimenting with how do we embrace video more broadly — full screen, immersive, entertaining, mobile-first video. And so you’ll see us do a number of things, or experiment with a number of things in this space over the coming months.”
Lastly, he also stated that Instagram will be more transparent in terms of communicating with the upcoming changes on their App.
“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.”
If want, you can watch Adam Mosseri’s Twitter video here about Instagram’s upcoming major updates.