“Instagram will become more video-centric over time,” says Adam Mosseri

Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, announced today that the platform is now leaning more towards videos. This comes a day after Kylie Jenner shared a screenshot of another user’s post on her Instagram Stories, missing the old days of Instagram when it was known as a photo-sharing app. “Make Instagram Instagram again,” Jenner wrote. “Stop trying to be TikTok. I just want to see cute photos of my friends. Regards, everyone.”

Responding to concerns about how the platform is moving into video, Mosseri said in a short video posted that the platform will focus more on video. He points out that this is an inevitable change. “We see it even if we don’t change anything, we see it even if you just look at the timeline, if you look at what people are sharing on Instagram, over time it’s moving more and more to videos.”

Mosseri emphasized that Instagram is bringing a number of changes to the app along with videos. “One of them is that if you see a new version of the feed in full screen or hear about it, you know it’s a test,” he said. The idea is that the full-screen experience, not only for videos but also for photos, can be more fun and engaging. Although he agrees that the feature is “not good yet”.

It should be noted that Instagram has transformed rapidly in recent months with Reels. The main feed has been filled with algorithmic recommendations mixed in with your friends’ posts, and almost all videos now redirect you to Reels.

Referrals are posts in your feed from accounts you don’t follow. According to Mosseri, referrals are one of the most effective and important ways to help authors reach more people, especially small authors. “The goal is to help you discover new and interesting things on Instagram that you might not even know existed. Now if you see things in your feed that are referrals you don’t care. This means we are making a bad assessment. And we have to improve and you can X out referrals, you can even delay all referrals for up to a month or move on to your next source,” he added.