Instagram overfocused on videos, reels last year: Head

The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, thinks that traditional photo posts suffered last year because of the platform's lopsided emphasis on videos and reels.

While answering a question from his weekly Q&A about photographers 'losing faith' in Instagram as a platform for showcasing their work, Mosseri mentioned, "I think we were overfocused on video in 2022 and pushed ranking too far and basically showed too many videos and not enough photos," reports The Verge.

According to Mosseri, the company has since been working behind the scenes to restore a more equitable balance, and internal analytics indicate that it is effective.

"Things like how often someone likes photos versus videos and how often someone comments on photos versus videos are roughly equal, which is a good sign that things are balanced," Mosseri mentioned.

"To the degree that there is more video on Instagram over time, it's going to be because that's what's driving overall engagement more. But photos are always going to be an important part of what we do," he added.

During the Q&A, Mosseri also addressed spam on the platform, which is still a constant concern, the report said.

"We definitely have spam and bots on Instagram. We're doing our best to reduce it. I'm particularly worried about comments right now; it's something that we're actually actively looking into and hope to improve over the course of the year," he said. - IANS