The latest with Instagram

People come to Instagram to connect with friends, family and interests. Creators and their unique, entertaining content are a huge part of the reason why people open Instagram every day. As part of our work to improve the Instagram experience while helping creators to connect with their followers, grow their audience and make a living, 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 centre. Photos remain an important part of Instagram, and as part of these tests, we're exploring the best ways to create, share and enjoy them in a full-screen feed.

We're excited about the benefits that a full-screen viewing experience can offer to creators and their followers, especially as we see Reels continue to be the fastest growing format on Instagram. 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 creators 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 that 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 working on the experience to make it better.

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

We have made updates that aim to prioritise distributing original content via recommendations in places such as the Reels tab and Feed. Original content includes content that 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 such as the Reels tab, Explore, search and Feed.
2. If you're working with another creator or a business, 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 such as the Reels tab, Explore, search and Feed. If the collaboration features a paid partnership, add the paid partnership label.
3. If someone else 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 that 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, such as Reels, can offer to creators: more space to tell your story, captivate audiences with immersive content and grow your following.

People come to Reels to participate in cultural trends, collaborate with the community and discover new ideas. With creative tools such as effects, music and stickers, creators can create engaging videos that inspire your audience. Take a look at 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 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 emphasise 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 that you already love from Stories, now in Reels: Use stickers such as poll, emoji slider and quiz to spark group participation and pull in new audiences to interact with your reel.

Reels gives you a flexible and fun way to tell your brand story and be 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 creators.

We are listening to feedback and building to create better experiences for creators and the community that loves them. Learn more about how creators can grow themselves and their communities on Instagram with the Creator Lab.