A new feature on Instagram could cause some Instagram users to feel embarrassed. If you are browsing through Reels you may see a small bubble in the bottom left corner of the screen. This bubble looks like your profile picture, a friend’s picture, and a heart icon, which means that one of your mutual followers has liked the video.
Instagram's New Feature Could Lead to Awkward Moments
This feature is well intentioned as it’s trying to show off popular content amongst the mutual connections, however it could cause some uncomfortable situations. Say you’ve liked a video you’d rather not show your friends, but they might come across it when they browse Reels. The new addition to the platform is meant to be closer to the users by sharing the content which were shared by their close friends.
It only applies to videos that mutual followers like and doesn’t include public accounts or random users. With this in mind, the videos that you see are videos that people you and your friends follow like, so it’s more personal but it’s also potentially more revealing.
This feature works for videos in the Reels tab as well as on the Explore page. While Instagram is adding new features and experimenting with its feature set, users will have to decide how much of this new social sharing they are willing to tolerate, and how it affects their experience on the platform.
If you’re a person who values your privacy or just doesn’t want to see certain videos end up being public amongst your social circles, Instagram’s new feature may take some getting used to. It’s meant to encourage connection and bring to light mutual interests, but along the way it may unintentionally spark some awkward interactions.
Instagram's New Reels Feature Aims to Boost Engagement
To encourage more engagement, and bring users back to the Reels tab, Instagram is bringing a new feature. In particular, it is eager to lure back the attention of users who have left to TikTok following its ban from U.S. app stores. The hope from Instagram is that this addition will drive users to interact more with Reels and make it a bigger part of their experience.
'What we want Instagram to do,' Instagram head Adam Mosseri said, 'is to be more than just a platform for creators to showcase their work.' We'd like it to be a place where people come together around friends and shared interests through creativity." By focusing on social connections, not content creation, this new feature supports that goal.
In the Reels tab, there is a new option to see a friends’ icon at the top right corner. If you tap this icon, you’ll see a feed of Reels your friends have liked, making for a more engaged and personal experience. The point is to make Reels feel like a social space instead of just somewhere to consume content.
The feature also allows users to interact with their friends within the app. Users can begin conversations by tapping on a friend’s profile picture, which provides a more socially connected browsing experience. This is an attempt to get Reels feeling more like a community driven platform, where folks can share and discuss content with the ones they love.
With these changes, Instagram is continuing to reassert that it’s a platform about building a place where creativity and social engagement coexist. With Reels, Instagram is looking to build a more engaging and personal space that helps people stay connected to friends and interests they care about while it encourages more interaction with the content that matters to them, says Instagram.
Instagram’s Strategy to Compete with TikTok: New Features and Incentives
In an effort to keep users from leaving for TikTok and other competing platforms, Instagram has been rolling out a few changes to how videos appear for users. These are part of Instagram’s larger attempt to stay relevant in a crowded short-form video market where TikTok is the king.
The day the TikTok was banned in some areas, Instagram released a new video editing app known as Edits, which works similar to CapCut, TikTok’s most popular editing tool. The strategic timing of the release of Edits hasn't helped the app gain traction with users. The app hasn’t found the appeal or the user friendly features that have made CapCut so popular.
Meanwhile, Meta, Instagram’s parent company, has been taking more direct steps to combat TikTok’s dominance by paying influencers to post Reels content before sharing it on TikTok. First of all, this is a tactic that’s going to encourage influencers to focus solely on Instagram for posting video content and secondly, it’s a way for Meta to be the first player in this short form video space.
This is a strategy that Meta recognises the growing power of platforms like TikTok and the importance of Instagram to keep up and innovate. To stay on top, Instagram wants to continue to be the place for short form video and the go to destination for social media, and by incentivizing influencers and introducing new tools like Edits, Instagram is trying to build that position.
Ultimately, Instagram’s fight to dominate the short form video space is just beginning, and its efforts to make Reels more engaging and its video tools more powerful are a direct response to TikTok’s ascension. With Instagram evolving, we’ll see how these changes influence user engagement and if it can bring users back to the platform from platforms like TikTok.