Instagram’s Israel head Adam Mosseri has stated that the social app is no longer just for photo sharing anymore. His announcement comes after Instagram parent company Facebook stated that it wants the popular app to become more like TikTok and YouTube.
“We’re no longer a photo-sharing app or a square photo-sharing app,” said Mosseri.
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Competition is always good for the consumer and leads to improvement in quality. Much has been made of how Facebook holds a de facto monopoly over social media these days. It is not the only website of its kind, with billions of users, but the company also owns Instagram and popular messaging app WhatsApp. But now it looks like the Chinese owned app TikTok has made enough of a mark on the markets to force Facebook to upgrade Instagram.
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And everyone loves these videos. Cats, dogs, women in bikinis dancing, movie and TV show clips, and of course real films of people doing stupid things and getting hurt, are all examples of what everyone loves about TikTok. Instagram posts have seen more and more videos as well these days, not just pics. And as the for pay service Only Fans grows in popularity because it allows nudity, we may soon see the mainstream apps like Instagram offer an uncensored service too.
Instagram was founded in 2010 and was bought out by Facebook a year later. TikTok did not become available until 2017, but in its four short years the app has become a major player in the social media market. And the social media wars are only just heating up, as evidenced by Facebook’s move.
Adam Mosseri took to rival social media app Twitter to say, “Changes are coming to video on Instagram. 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 also used his own service to get the word out, posting a video on Instagram. In the video he said, ““We’re also going to be experimenting with how do we embrace video more broadly — full screen, immersive, entertaining, mobile-first video. You’ll see us do a number of things, or experiment with a number of things in this space over the coming months.”
The news comes just a week after Instagram introduced its new “suggested posts” feature. Suggested posts will be placed in a user’s your primary feed, sometimes appearing before photos and videos from the people who they follow. Until now such suggestions only came after each Instagram post.
According to his official bio, Adam Mosseri is the Head of Instagram where he oversees all functions of the business including engineering, product and operations. Adam has been at Facebook for more than 11 years. He was design director for Facebook’s mobile apps and then moved into product management where he led the News Feed product and engineering teams for many years. He was Head of News Feed prior to joining Instagram where he oversaw product before managing the entire organization.
Prior to Facebook, Adam worked at TokBox as the company’s first designer. He began his career founding a design consultancy in 2003 with offices in New York and San Francisco that focused on graphic, interaction and exhibition design. Adam holds a BA from the Gallatin School of Interdisciplinary Study at NYU where he studied Information Design and Media. Born and raised in New York, he now lives in San Francisco with his wife and two sons.