Skip to main content

Instagram might become more like TikTok in an important way

To better compete against TikTok, Instagram is taking influence from a major feature of its rival.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri took to yet another social media platform — Twitter — to announce that the Facebook-owned service will be getting an “immersive” viewing experience in the form of full-screen photos and videos directly in Instagram’s Home feed.

Related Videos
Instagram's full-screen app format on a colorful background.

Instagram’s full-screen Home feed will be found when you launch the app, the company is quick to note that this feature is still in test mode. If you do have the feature, when you launch the Instagram app on mobile, you’ll be greeted with full-screen views of photos and videos (similar to what you’d see when you launch rival TikTok‘s mobile app) to make the content more immersive.

“At the beginning of the year, I talked about how important video and messaging was to the future of Instagram,” Mosseri said in a video clip embedded in his Twitter post regarding the announcement of the immersive Home feed. “We’re moving Instagram to a place where video is a bigger part of the Home experience, where content is more immersive — it takes up more of the screen.”

Facebook’s Instagram chief revealed that the test is starting to roll out this week.

“We know that the future of photos and videos are mobile-first,” he added. “They are 9 by 16. They are more immersive.”

📣 Testing Feed Changes 📣

We’re testing a new, immersive viewing experience in the main Home feed.

If you’re in the test, check it out and let me know what you think. 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/dmM5RzpicQ

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) May 3, 2022

This would result in taller photos and videos in your Instagram feed — if the testing proves successful. This would be another stark departure from the company’s early days, where photos were displayed in a square aspect ratio similar to Polaroid images.

Instagram is soliciting feedback as part of this test, which should take a few weeks to complete, and the company is asking users to tell it if they love or hate the changes.

Instagram’s mockup, which was shown in Mosseri’s video, did not show Stories or how the company will place Stories, which usually is located at the top of your Home feed. Following TechCrunch‘s reporting of the commission, company representatives confirmed that Stories will remain at the top of your Instagram Home feed.

At the time of publication, I did not see the changes to my personal Instagram experience — launching the app still showed the old Home format, so it may take a while for the new view to show up for every Instagram user.

Prior to the Home feed changes, Instagram was criticized for ripping off its rival’s short video format and rolling it into its own media-sharing experience in the form of Instagram Reels. Both TikTok and Instagram are competing to be the platform of choice for a younger, mobile-centric audience that may not want to view video content as long as traditional YouTube videos. Instead, these shorter “reels” will help creators on Instagram share meaningful, bite-sized video clips with their audience.

Editors' Recommendations

Instagram to soon let creators make NFTs and sell them to fans
Series of four mobile screenshots showing the selling of collectibles on Instagram.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on your favorite social media platforms are apparently here to stay. At least that seems to be the case for one Meta-owned platform.

On Wednesday, as part of its Creator Week event, Meta announced that Instagram will soon let creators make and sell their own NFTs on the app itself. The new ability was described as another way for fans to support their favorite creators.

Read more
Clear Mode on TikTok: Here’s what it is and how to use it
The TikTok app on a smartphone's screen. The smartphone is sitting on a white table.

When it comes to its features, TikTok is most known for all the fun bells and whistles you can add to a video that you create for its short-form video-sharing platform.

But what about the app's video-watching features? Those might be lesser known to you (or just less noticeable) because they're part of a more passive way of experiencing TikTok. But despite how easily video-watching features can fly under the radar, there is one new TikTok feature, that's worth knowing about. It's called "Clear Mode."

Read more
Staying on Twitter? Here are two ways to make it easier
Twitter app on the OnePlus 10T.

Yes, it's true: Elon Musk has officially taken the reins at Twitter. And as expected, there are quite a few people who aren't happy about the news, as they have voiced their concerns that a Musk-helmed Twitter could be more susceptible to more of the toxicity and abuse that the bird app already struggles with. Deleting your Twitter account is certainly a viable option that many are considering -- and hey, more power to you ifthat's what you decide.

But here are two things you can do to make the days ahead a bit more bearable without having to resort to muting a bunch of words or leaving Twitter altogether.
Get away from the main timeline
When you're scrolling through endless tweets on your timeline, it's easy to think that that's all there is to Twitter. And that's actually not true. At least not as of recently. Twitter has other ways of sharing and consuming content that isn't about just having to put up with whatever you see in your main timeline. And these other ways are actually whole sections of the bird app that are separate from the main timeline, giving you a break from others'  rants or mean tweets or arguments.
Twitter Communities

Read more