Instagram Plans to Take on TikTok With Full-Screen Video Content

Instagram will start hosting full-screen videos as part of a major shakeup of the social platform, as the Facebook-owned company seeks to make itself more relevant in an era dominated by TikTok and YouTube.

Instagram Feature 1
That's the major take-home from a video shared on Wednesday by Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram. In the video posted to his Instagram and Twitter account, Mosseri said that the social platform no longer wants to be thought of as the "square photo-sharing app," and will instead lean more into entertainment and video.

Instagram is no stranger to video content, previously offered through things like IGTV, Reels, and Stories, but Mosseri said Instagram would be "embracing video more broadly" going forward, starting with "full screen, immersive, entertaining, mobile-first video," which sounds a lot like TikTok, whose popularity Mosseri concedes is something Instagram wants to emulate.


Instagram will also start testing recommendations over the next couple of months, showing users in their Feed what they may not be following yet. (The platform actually began testing in this department just this week, with the introduction of topics, which users can opt to see more or less of.)

Users should expect plenty of experimentation in this area "over the coming months," said Mosseri, and Instagram intends to be more public about what it's doing and why in the increasingly competitive social media space.

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Top Rated Comments

HeavenDynamic Avatar
55 months ago
Alternative title: Instagram wants to kill Instagram
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Johnny907 Avatar
55 months ago
No. As a photographer I use Instagram BECAUSE it’s focus is photos. Yes there are “stories” and “reels” for folks that want to do that as well, but trying to imitate other apps is not the answer. If I wanted TikTok I’d use TikTok. These are two separate markets, and this is just as bad of an idea as that time McDonalds tried selling pizza.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DinkThifferent Avatar
55 months ago

Alternative title: Instagram wants to kill Instagram
I support this 100%

Less Facebook = Better society.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
andrewxgx Avatar
55 months ago
zukerburg: hey, lets copy every feature from every other social network and people will only use fb
*people start to use ig becouse its not bloated*
zukerburg: hey, fb became to bloated and people want to use something else
*buys not bloated instagram*

zukerburg: hey, lets copy every feature from every other social network and people will only use ig


time is flat circle
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
senttoschool Avatar
55 months ago
Instagram is so pathetic. All they can do is copy competitors. No innovation.


Instagram will also start testing recommendations over the next couple of months, showing users in their Feed what they may not be following yet. (The platform actually began testing in this department just this week, with the introduction of topics, which users can opt to see more or less of.)
They started showing posts in my feed from accounts that I didn't follow a year ago already. They hide posts from my following list after just one view and do not give you an option to turn it off. This is incredibly annoying. This is just Facebook 2.0 all over again - forcing you to see content that they think you want to see instead of who you're following. It's so annoying.

A few years ago, Facebook.com reversed course and started showing more posts from your friends and fewer posts from an algorithm because the platform became impersonal. I bet a few years from now, Instagram will have to do the same. Hopefully we'll have something better to replace IG soon.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
paulovsouza Avatar
55 months ago
Why don’t they innovate on the ideas they already stole. IG is so bloated, people can’t even create enough content for all their avenues. No one can convince me IG isn’t a dying platform.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)