Photographers should start to see more engagement on their Instagram posts, according to company head, Adam Mosseri.
Having pushed hard on its ‘Reels’ video format throughout 2022, notably at the expense of still images, Instagram has been working on rebalancing its rankings by increasing the prominence of photos on the platform.
Instagram has begun showing more photos in user feeds after displaying 'too many videos' in 2022.
Speaking in a recent, though now expired, Instagram story picked up by The Verge, Mosseri reassured users that photos will ‘always be a part of Instagram,’ further admitting that the platform had been “overfocused on video in 2022” and “showed too many videos and not enough photos.”
This will come as welcome news to Instagram’s community of photographers, many of whom have become frustrated at feeling compelled to repurpose their still photo content as Reels in order to maintain visibility on the platform.
For example, this protest post (contains some NSFW language) by Instagram user Tati Bruening, urging Instagram to re-prioritize photos, has already garnered over 2 million likes and spawned a change.org petition currently standing at over 330,000 signatures.
Instagram’s latest changes won’t only benefit content creators but consumers too— Mosseri went on to explain how photo fans will be able to nudge Instagram into serving them more photo-based content. As noted by 9To5Mac, Instagram will pay attention to how often a user likes and comments on photos versus videos in order to prioritize their preferred format in their feeds.
So, if you want to see more photos in your feed, be sure to like and comment on them often. If you’re a photographer on the platform, encourage your followers to do the same. Hopefully, Instagram will get the message and serve you more of what you want to see. It will likely prove more effective than signing a petition.
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