For a couple of months, Instagram has been boosting its video service with the introduction of new features which suggest Facebook wants to transform it into a major video platform.
Indeed, after starting out by counting views and extending its video-length limit to 60 seconds, on Friday Instagram launched two new channels to upgrade the Explore tab so that users can see more videos easily.
The first feature, named “Videos You Might Like”, collects together videos published across the world to offer a seamless viewing experience. The second channel, called “Featured”, is a collection of videos on specific topics. Users are able to watch these channels by scrolling through the Explore tab.
Only available in the US for now, Instagram is working to bring this to the rest of the world soon.
It’s now clear that Facebook’s Instagram is aiming to be a video giant, challenging competitors such as Snapchat or YouTube. In a concept similar to a Snapchat Story, these new features allow users to be immersed in events or topics by watching a collection of videos. In this way, it should encourage users to share more videos.
Just like the mosaic of pictures, these channels will look like a video gallery, available for all users, to watch high quality content about a festival, such as Coachella above, sport fixtures, and many other big events, especially for the channel “Featured”. The feature “Videos You Might Like” is interesting in terms of personal experience, pushing certainly content which corresponds to our area of interest like sports, music or travel, following on from what we share and like on the platform.
With the current update of its video service, Instagram has made an important step in its development which should see more and more videos shared across its platform.
