The Latest With Instagram

People come to Instagram to connect with friends, family and interests. Businesses are a huge part of the interests community on Instagram, with 90% of accounts following at least one business. As part of our work to improve the Instagram experience for people while helping businesses to connect with their followers and attract new audiences, we have recently started to explore some changes.

We’re currently testing various new experiences that explore a full-screen feed, with video more front and center. Photos remain an important part of Instagram, and as part of these tests we’re working on the best way to create, share and enjoy them in a full-screen feed.

We’re excited about the benefits a full-screen viewing experience can offer to brands: more space to tell your brand story and captivate audiences with immersive creative. As we continue to test and learn, we’ll listen closely to feedback from our community to help determine what will ultimately launch.

We want to help businesses reach new audiences by recommending their content to people who don’t yet follow them. We use a number of signals to determine what content or accounts to surface. Signals include posts people have previously engaged with, other people they follow and their interactions in the app. And everyone has the option to provide feedback on content that is of interest by tapping the “...” on recommended posts.

Our goal is to make suggested posts relevant and inspiring, and we will continue iterating on the experience to make it better.

As we recommend more content on Instagram, it’s important that the credit, distribution, growth and monetization go to the original creator.

We have made updates that aim to prioritize distribution of original content in recommendations in places like the Reels tab and Feed. Original content includes content you filmed or owned yourself or has not been posted on Instagram before.

1. If you plan to repost a user-generated Reel, try using Remix in Instagram Reels to add your spin, respond or react to an existing video. Remixed Reels can be recommended in places like the Reels tab, Explore, Search and Feed.
2. If you’re working with another creator, try using our Collabs feature to create a single post that is shared to both of your followers. These posts can be recommended in places like the Reels tab, Explore, Search and Feed. If the collaboration features a paid partnership, add the Paid Partnership Label.
3. If a customer tags you in a story, you can still repost to your own Stories to share customer testimonials.

Overall, the shift to video is a direction we and the industry as a whole are focused on. Today, users spend 20% of their time on Instagram viewing Reels. We’re excited about the benefits that short-form video, like Reels, can offer to brands: more space to tell your brand story, captivate audiences with immersive creative and get discovered by people who may love your business.

People come to Reels to participate in cultural trends, collaborate with the community and discover new ideas. With creative tools like effects, music and stickers, businesses can create engaging videos that inspire your audience. Check out these recent updates:

• Templates: Templates allow you to borrow the structure of another reel and use it as a starting point. Templates pre-load the audio and clip placeholders, so all you have to do is add and trim your business’ clips.
• 90-second Reels: More time to express your creativity and tell slightly longer stories!
• Sound effects and Audio Import: With sound effects, you can emphasize key moments or heighten the drama in your Reel. Audio Import allows you to take audio from any video in your camera roll and use it in a Reel.
• Stickers you already love from Stories, now in Reels: Use Stickers like Poll, Emoji Slider and Quiz to spark group participation and pull in new audiences to interact with your Reel.

Reels give you a flexible (and fun) way to tell your brand story and get discovered by new audiences. Reels also continues to be the fastest-growing format on Instagram, as more people watch Reels to be entertained, go deeper with their interests or discover new businesses.

We are listening to feedback and building to create better experiences for businesses and the community that loves them. Learn more about how to grow and scale small businesses on Instagram with our in-depth guide.