Big changes are coming to Instagram—here’s everything you need to know

Instagram is no longer the square, photo-sharing app

Two young woman are looking at their phone wearing fashionable outfits, this was pictures during fashion month in Italy
(Image credit: Getty Images / Christian Vierig)

There are some big changes coming to the social media apps we know and love. As TikTok continues to dominate our attention with the best hacks, and recipes, like that Biscoff latte, apps like Instagram are making some huge changes to compete.

Instagram is a great place to find the most popular makeup brands and fashion essentials like the most Instagrammed designer bags and is known first and foremost as a photo-sharing platform. This however will begin to change, as Instagram is now moving to more video-focused sharing.

The company's head, Adam Mosseri shared a video on Twitter outlining the new changes coming over the next few months. 

The changes coming to Instagram  

In the video, Mosseri said they are focusing on four key areas, creators, videos, shopping, and messaging. He said, “we’re also going to be experimenting with how do we embrace video more broadly—full screen, immersive, entertaining, mobile-first video.”

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The app will start showing users full-screen, recommended videos in their feeds, even from accounts the user doesn’t follow.

Mosseri said Instagram is no longer a square, photo-sharing app, and with "huge competition" from TikTok and Youtube, Instagram needs to embrace change.

Similar to Netflix’s TikTok-like feature, Instagram will feature way more video content, and offer creators more choices when it comes to video sharing. 

Instagram is not the only app that has announced huge changes, TikTok has also revealed an exciting new change.

 The changes coming to TikTok 

TikTok is known for its hacks, trends, and challenges all featured in short, 60-second videos. But now users will be able to make videos up to three minutes long. So this may be the end of searching for "part two" of each video—and if we’re honest we won’t miss that.

In a post, TikTok’s product manager Drew Kirchhoff has said the change will pave the way for, “even richer storytelling and entertainment on Tik Tok.”

“Longer videos are now one more tool people can use to captivate the community with their creative expression.”

Naomi Jamieson
Lifestyle News Writer

Naomi is a Lifestyle News Writer with the Women's Lifestyle team, where she covers everything from entertainment to fashion and beauty, as well as TikTok trends for Woman&Home, after previously writing for My Imperfect Life and GoodTo. Interestingly though, Naomi actually has a background in design, having studied illustration at Plymouth University but lept into the media world in 2020, after always having a passion for writing and earned her Gold Standard diploma in Journalism with the NCTJ.


Before working for Future Publishing’s Lifestyle News team, she worked in the Ad production team. Here she wrote and designed adverts on all sorts of things, which then went into print magazines across all genres. Now, when she isn’t writing articles on celebs, fashion trends, or the newest shows on Netflix, you can find her drinking copious cups of coffee, drawing and probably online shopping.