Instagram to Keep Focus on Video Over Time, Despite Outrage

Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a short video shared on Tuesday that the media-first social network is completely committed to a shift toward video.

“I need to be honest. I do believe that more and more of Instagram is gonna become video over time,” Mosseri said.

👋🏼 There’s a lot happening on Instagram right now.

I wanted to address a few things we’re working on to make Instagram a better experience.

Please let me know what you think 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/x1If5qrCyS

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) July 26, 2022

The video follows complaints from Kylie Jenner and her sister Kim Kardashian, who posted an image to Instagram a day earlier with a caption urging the company to “Make Instagram Instagram again.”

“(Stop trying to be tiktok i just want to see cute photos of my friends). Sincerely, everyone.” Jenner is the second-most popular user on Instagram. An online petition created for the cause has accumulated more than 100,000 signatures.

It doesn’t look like the celebrity sisters will be getting their way, though. Mosseri made it clear that Instagram will continue to support photos. However, he said that user behaviour is favouring video, adding that “we’re gonna have to lean into that shift.”

Instagram and its parent company, Facebook-owner Meta, are pushing their TikTok competitor, Reels, hard to regain market share from the Chinese app. The platform now has algorithmic “For You” page-style recommendations baked into the main user feed, and it is also working on turning all video posts into Reels.

Things are only going to get more video-centric from here. Meta is also making similar changes to the Facebook app, with a TikTok-inspired redesign well in the works.