Renew or die. The director of Instagram made it clear in a recent message: "We are no longer a photo-sharing app." Adam Mosseri has announced in a video posted on his social media the changes the platform will undergo. Following in the footsteps of competitors like TikTok or YouTube, they intend to focus on video and entertainment, even if honeral betrays the original idea of ​​the social network.

Mosseri distinguishes four areas of change: creators, shopping, messaging, and video, prioritizing the latter. He talked about immersive full-screen experiences that prioritize consumption on mobile devices. Some of them are already included in Stories, Reels and IGTV services, but the director of the ‘app’ has focused on deepening these types of formats into the new era. Even if he doesn’t mention it, he’s starting to work against the huge shadows of sites like TikTok or Twitch: it’s time to act to not be left behind. When it was acquired by Facebook in 2012, the first improvements came, including tags and direct messages and photos and videos. It was later revealed that Zuckerberg’s pulse was not trembling when plagiarizing spaces on other platforms. As was the case with the stories — the format he unscrupulously stole from the successful Snapchat — and with live Periscope-style videos, the introduction of the Reels format was a similar maneuver.

Along with that, he wanted to imitate short videos based on TikTok, a social network born in China five years ago, and a revolution among young (and not so young) people, plaguing the internet with viral videos. The problem, for Instagram, this time is that it can’t eat the small fish that competes with the big fish.

Instagram dagoeneko aurrera egiten ari zen TikTok-en tekniken erabilerarako bidean, hala nola, edukien gomendioa. Izan ere, hilabete honetan bertan proba bat jarri zuen abian erabiltzaileen jarioan mezuak iradokitzeko, jarraitzen dituzten pertsonek igotako argazki eta bideoen gainetik jarriz. Hau da, TikTok bere lurrik onenean berdintzea bilatzen zuen: algoritmoan, alegia.

Teknika hau modu egokia da erabiltzaileak aplikazioetan egoteko denbora luzatzeko -eta TikTok-ek badaki-. Oraindik ikusi beharko da Instagramen hain ondo funtzionatuko duen, batez ere jende gutxi jarraitzen duten erabiltzaileetan eta nahiago dutenak beren lagunek argitaratutako argazkiak eta bideoak soilik aurkitzea. Argi ikusten duten arriskua da, baina beren gain hartzea nahiago dutena, beren zuzendari nagusiak esan zuenaren arabera.

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Looking at its strategy, it all indicates that Instagram wants to keep the best in every home, even if it has the most controversial features. Some of those studied in recent months are ‘Exclusive Stories’. This is a kind of “Onlyfans” that would open up the possibility of publishing content stored for those “followers” ​​who agree to pay for it. It remains to be seen whether they place any limit on them. These types of stories would be distinguished from others by a purple label.

Upon accessing them, a new window will warn the user that only fans can see them. Also, if you decide to pay, once inside you won’t be able to capture the screen while watching. In February this year, Twitter already announced its own subscription system, called ‘Super Follows’. Mosseri has already stated his intention to study this method, arguing that it would facilitate the financial relationship between content creators and their fans. For the latter, it is more interesting to access exclusive content.