In a recent QnA session with Instagram users, Instagram chief
Adam Mosseri revealed in a Story that the company plans to make photos a key
focus on the app once again, as it had been overfocusing on video content in
the past year.
Mosseri added that there will be a balance between how often users get likes and comments on photos versus videos. This sounds like good news for users who weren’t happy with an overflow of videos in the app, especially Reels, which have been getting more attention including likes and comments. Instagram thus kind of transformed into a TikTok-like app.
Instagram was mainly designed as a photo-sharing app that
became popular as people began to use it to celebrate their shared moments and
memories with friends and family. Soon after, the company started to experience
its competition with another app that rose to popularity in that time -
Snapchat. This influenced Instagram to adopt Snapchat’s strategy of Stories. Instagram’s
approach proved successful and that became the reason for further features that
the company has been since experimenting with.
While Instagram does promise for more focus on photos in 2023,
the reality of it depends on user engagement – if people spend more time interacting
with still images, we might see Instagram somewhat gaining back its originality.
