Instagram has confirmed that it’s testing a brand new strategy to its UI, with customers in India now in a position to open the app direct to the Reels feed, versus the normal feed publish show.
As you’ll be able to see on this instance, the up to date UI seems acquainted, however will give attention to Reels particularly. Tapping on that first publish will broaden the Reels view to the full-screen, scrollable Reels show.
Final week, Bloomberg reported that IG was testing this up to date variation in some markets, to be able to put extra emphasis on Reels engagement.
And now, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has shared some extra perception into the experiment:
“Reels and DMs have pushed most all our development at Instagram over the previous couple of years, so we’re exploring making them the primary two tabs. That is simply an choice accessible to a small group of individuals in India beginning in the present day. Photographs from accounts you observe are nonetheless within the dwelling tab.”
So it’s not a full-on reformation of the app right into a TikTok clone. However it’s sort of shut.
Which is smart. As Mosseri notes, Reels are the place IG customers are actually spending their time, with Meta not too long ago reporting that general video watch time on IG is up 20% year-over-year. Meta has additionally reported that Reels now make up 50% of all time spent within the app.
Individuals simply aren’t posting to the principle feed like they used to, whereas Reels drives extra consideration, and extra engagement. And as such, based mostly on the information alone, it is smart for Instagram to place extra emphasis on this ingredient, and current Reels entrance and heart to assist drive curiosity.
Instagram’s not too long ago launched iPad app additionally opens to Reels direct, and it appears inevitable that, at some stage, Instagram will at the least let extra customers decide into seeing Reels up entrance, as a substitute of static picture updates.
Which is a serious shift away from IG’s roots, and that’s undoubtedly going to harass some customers. However once more, the information reveals that that is seemingly the easiest way to go, based mostly on engagement traits, and driving retention and curiosity.
In fact, customers would additionally desire much less algorithmic intervention, and a purely chronological feed. Or at the least they are saying they might, although on that entrance, the information reveals that engagement rises when algorithms are utilized to focus on essentially the most related content material to every consumer.
So, principally, Instagram is following the information, and can proceed to take action in its improvement choices.
Which seemingly means you’re by no means getting your chronological feed again, however Reels are set to get extra focus.
Mosseri additionally notes that the feed experiment in India is decide in, and uers can revert again to the unique expertise at any time when they select.
