Instagram is commonly seen as the social media platform for budding photographers and people who like to share every moment of their lives, but it may soon become a destination for short-form TikTok-inspired videos and shopping as it out a new major design. Prioritising recent experiments such as Reels and Shop pages, these will be added to the home screen ad give Instagram more focus as reported in The Verge.
This change represents the biggest user interface update in the app for many years and shows where the company is headed in its battle to stay relevant as it tries to win over the TikTok crowd while also adding more monetisation options through the Shops tab. The Shop tab will have personalized recommendations, editors’ picks curated by the @shop channel, shoppable videos, and new product collections which Instagram believes will lead to sales revenue and possible further monetisation options for content creators as well. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri revealed in a new blog post that these features are going to become a big part of the social media network in the future:
We don’t take these changes lightly – we haven’t updated Instagram’s home screen in a big way for quite a while. But how people create and enjoy culture has changed, and the biggest risk to Instagram is not that we change too fast, but that we don’t change and become irrelevant. We’re excited about the new design and believe it gives the app a much-needed refresh, while staying true to our core value of simplicity.
I’m not a big fan of Instagram and absolutely despise TikTok, so these changes are unlikely to sway me over It’s clear though that the target audience for social media platforms are younger crowds who see significant appeal through these channels, and the different marketers and influencers who utilise them for their personal brands.
Last Updated: November 13, 2020
