Instagram head, Adam Mosseri, on Twitter has revealed that the company is working towards making major changes on its app. In the video he posted, he outlined that there would be major changes coming to the app and its plans for the second half of 2021.
He captioned the post, “At Instagram we’re always trying to build new features that help you get the most out of your experience, Right now we’re focused on four key areas: creators, video, shopping and messaging.
Adam Mosseri, Instagram head
He said that the number one reason that people use Instagram is to be entertained. He has also made it clear that Instagram is no longer a photo sharing app. In the video, he acknowledged that there is a lot of competition from YouTube and TikTok. He also said that they may start showing some content on users’ feeds, even if they are not following the page yet. This is done as a test for further developments on what kind of topics should be recommended to the users.
The company has been going through major changes lately as it is in a transition phase due to heavy competition from YouTube and TikTok. The social media platform ventured into video by introducing IGTV a couple of years ago but that didn’t seem to work out as they may have liked due to the introduction short videos through TikTok. To combat this, they immediately introduced Reels on Instagram, which was its own version of short videos.
Instagram wants to foray in video in a heavy manner as Mosseri explained in his twitter post. He said that video streaming is the fastest growing thing online in recent times and the social media platform will focus on mobile-first, full-screen immersive video in the near future. He also pointed out the shift of shopping from offline to online due to the pandemic and how it is important to venture into shopping for Instagram.
Changes and developments are expected to be underway in the coming months and users’ might receive diverse and different kinds of recommendations on their feeds in the near future. It will be interesting to see how the social media platform keeps its essence of entertaining people on their app alive, with all the new features and integration of shopping, messaging and heavy focus on video streaming.
