Verticle video is a staple of TikTok’s viewing experience, a feature that has defined the identity of the platform. TikTok’s competitor Instagram, is testing a feature that would very much bring a similar user experience to their platform. This feature will provide a vertical user viewing content experience front and center to the tech company’s social media platform. Instagram’s parent company meta in an earnings report the prior week took note that its Instagram feature Reels (TikToks Equivalent) now accounts for 20% of the total user time.
Contributing cash incentives to create reels to make top-tier content. Rewarding original content in the algorithm as opposed to reposting content. Instagram shared an image presenting the changes. The stories bar is not shown at the top of the screen until users begin to scroll through their feed.
The home feed is changed with a full-screen presentation with likes, comments, captions, and additional features positioned above than below. Buttons at the bottom of the screen such as reels, search, and shopping. Certain features along with the feature to login such as Notifications, and New Posts will remain at the top.
Platforms like Facebook videos of all types total 50% of time spent. Most of Instagram’s revenue currently comes from its stories. Plans to further expand on the ability to add monetization options to reels in-order to out-dominate stories; currently, that infrastructure exists for stories. TikTok’s competitor Google, is testing ads on its “reels” equivalent to the 30 billion daily viewed “Youtube Shorts”. In April Instagram began to test new user templates allowing users to use existing reel formats.
Written by Skye Leon
Sources:
TechCrunch: Instagram is testing a full-screen home feed; by Amanda Silberling
TheVerge: Instagram is testing a TikTok-like full-screen feed; by Mia Sato
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Marina Stroganova‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of ajay_suresh‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
