Instagram is testing a full-screen feature for the Home feed

Instagram has been taking a cue or two from TikTok as it progresses more heavily towards focusing on videos. The latest thing the social media platform has been testing is a TikTok-like full-screen, vertical video/post that is going to offer a more “immersive experience” to the users. Instagram explained that it is being designed to “bring video front and centre” and this seems to be a “recurring theme” at Meta, as TechCrunch pointed out.

With a new full-screen home feed, you will still have access to the bottom navigation bar that has the discovery tab, Reels, your own page, and shopping; and the top bar will continue to show you icons to switch accounts, create a post, check notifications, and browse messages. The test image does not show where the Instagram Stories will be, but it is being assumed that they too might remain at the top of the feed as they do now. Since the screenshot was taken after scrolling down past the top of the feed, it is possible the stories are still right on top.

As TechCrunch pointed out, Stories are a “bigger moneymaker” for Instagram than Reels, “since there is more infrastructure in place to sell ads on Stories”. While Instagram does plan to add more monestisation options to Reels, it said during its earnings call that the “push to monetise Reels will take place over multiple years”.

The main idea here is that Instagram is continuing in its quest to capture TikTok’s audience. Meta mentioned during its earnings call last week that people now spend 20 per cent of their time on Instagram on Reels and 50 per cent of the time on Facebook is spent on videos of all kinds.  

Google is also competing with TikTok with its YouTube Shorts and the company mentioned during its earnings call last week that it has started testing ads on it. Google said that “YouTube Shorts is generating 30 billion views per day, which is four times more than last year”.

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