The clock is Tikuking.
With the future of the TikTok app in doubt, Instagram is making a number of significant changes to attract TikTok users.
TikTok was temporarily shut down after the Supreme Court upheld a law requiring ByteDance to sell its stock by January 19th.
On Monday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order suspending the ban for 75 days to find a U.S. buyer.
Meanwhile, Instagram is moving quickly to transition so-called “TikTok refugees” to Meta-owned apps.
Here are just a few of its new features.
new video editing app
On Sunday, the same day TikTok was temporarily banned in the United States. The announcement was made by Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram. The new app, called Edits, is a video editing app that could potentially replace CapCut, the ByteDance-owned video editing app that was also banned along with TikTok.
“There’s a lot going on in the world right now, but no matter what, our commitment is to create the most engaging creative tools for everyone who creates videos, not just for Instagram, but for the platform. We think it's a job. We can do it,” Mosseri said in the announcement video.
Mosseri added that the app is “not for people who use desktop apps.” It's not for people looking for templates. It's for people who use their mobile phones to create short videos. ”
The app is full of creative tools, with dedicated tabs for inspirational and trending audio, tabs to track ideas and drafts, the ability to share drafts with friends, and insights and analysis for Reels (aka Shorts). It will be a “suite”. Video posted on Instagram.
It also offers artificial intelligence animations, generated captions, and overlays such as text, sounds, audio effects, filters, stickers, and more. According to , up to 10 minutes of video is allowed for editing. App Store Description.
For now, Edits is available to pre-order and download for free from the App Store, but Mosseri said it won't be officially released until February.
However, the App Store lists the expected release date as March 13th.
Mosseri added that the first version of the app is “incomplete” but will be updated over time.
tall profile grid
Instagram's profile grid now displays all posts as 4:5 rectangles instead of squares. This is a change introduced last weekend.
“I'm sure some of you love squares, and square photos are kind of a tradition on Instagram. But right now, most of what's being uploaded, both photos and videos, is vertical. Direction,” Mosseri said on his Instagram Story on Friday. The Verge reported.
After the initial rollout, Posted by Mosseri on your feed On Monday, it said it had received “both positive and very negative” feedback on the changes, and shared details about how the grid will change in the coming months.
“We started with a vertical grid because most of the photos and videos uploaded to Instagram right now are vertical, and a rectangular shape makes those photos and videos look better.” he wrote in the caption.
“But we know some of you are spending too much time adjusting the grid and it’s ruined everything for you, so we’re going to improve the ability to customize your thumbnails. ”
Instagram Posts shows you how to allow the app to change and crop the thumbnails of posts that appear on the grid.
Highlight on grid
In the same Instagram post, Mosseri said that instead of keeping Story highlights as a circle at the top of your profile, you'll be moving Story highlights into a grid, similar to separate tabs for Reels and tagged photos. shared that they are considering creating a separate tab. .
“Highlights are a great way to showcase your favorite stories, but they're visually complex and depress the grid,” Mosseri writes. “To maintain control for creators, we're building tools that allow you to reorder the entire grid and create it however you like.”
He added that “as a bonus” Instagram will also add the ability to “bypass” posts by posting directly to the grid. [the home] Entire feed.” This means your posts will appear on your profile, but won't go to your followers' homepages.
Mosseri previously said on Instagram Live that the purpose of this was to get more content “above the fold,” but that “this is debatable” and that “we'll make it work. “I may not be able to do that,” he admitted. According to Mashable.
friends on reels
Your friends can now see your favorite Reels on Instagram.
A new feature in the Reels tab lets you see which friends liked and commented on your videos. This is similar to the chaotic old Instagram “Activity” tab that was removed in 2019.
“We want Instagram to be more than just a place to consume interesting content, we want it to be a place to connect with friends with shared interests,” Mosseri said in the article. Ta. video announcement.
At the top right of the tab are profile pictures of a few of your friends, and when you tap on them, you'll see a “private feed” of Reels that your friends like. You can see which of your friends particularly like your reels.
“We're doing this because we want Instagram to be a participatory, social experience, not just a drop-in experience, where you can actually explore your interests with your friends,” Mosseri said. Explained.
