You might be big on Instagram photo posts, but the platform is no longer a photo-sharing app

Call it changing with the times or what you will, but Instagram is no longer a “photo-sharing” app. And this doesn’t come from us, this is something Instagram head Adam Mosseri had to say. Mosseri’s declaration regarding how Instagram is evolving comes from a series of comments he made recently. "We're no longer a photo-sharing app or a square photo-sharing app," Mosseri said in a video he shared on his social media accounts this week. So you might be still thinking a lot about the photos you post and the filters you want to use, but according to Mosseri, the main reason why people come to Instagram now is “to be entertained”. And that’s not all, Instagram is not the only app that offers entertainment in a crowded marketplace.

“Let's be honest, there's some really serious competition right now. TikTok is huge, YouTube is even bigger and there are a lot of other upstarts as well,” Mosseri said. So to remain in the game, Mosseri said, Instagram is going to have to embrace that aspect, and “that means change”. So, how is Instagram going to change? ”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," Mosseri tweeted. 

One of the ways the platform is going to evolve is by starting to hand out more recommendations, as Mosseri pointed out. This was a reference to a test Instagram kicked off last week that shows users “Suggested Posts” interspersed within their feed. You might have spotted some of these lately, these recommendations are based on other accounts you follow on Instagram. Another way things are going to change, as Mosseri explains, is that Instagram plans to embrace video more broadly and is going to focus on full-screen and immersive content.

Basically, what this sounds like is that Instagram is going to become more like TikTok. And we’ve seen that beginning of that change coming in already with the advent of Reels. However, as Endgadget rightly points out, it’s one thing to adapt to what your rivals are doing and another to completely lose sight of what compelled people to flock to your platform in the first place. With Reels, Stories, and now, a dedicated shopping hub, Instagram feels more bloated, uncool, and “less vital than it was before”.

Whether you like it or not, it seems that is the way Instagram is going to keep up with its competitors. While Instagram users have more or less gotten used to the current features, if the platform starts focusing even more on videos and less on photo content, they might have a problem on their hands. But then again, people get used to almost everything.