Tests are being conducted on a fully-integrated Instagram fullscreen main feed feature that would present everything in an immersive, full-screen, swipeable interface instead of the top Stories bar. Given the changing usage patterns in apps, it’s been on the verge for a while. The Instagram feed in the example, shown by app researcher Alessando Paluzzi, would contain regular Feed posts, Stories, and Reels within a single flow.
#Instagram is working on a full immersive feed ? pic.twitter.com/zTXVpH4C6n
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) March 25, 2022
While viewing Stories, a frame bar would appear at the bottom of the screen, informing you that you may swipe left to view additional frames, while videos feature a progress bar instead. It’s a more natural, and coherent approach to showing Instagram material, which would fit with TikTok-led usage tendencies. The change would also allow for algorithmic improvements based on your response to each particular post, as opposed to the current method, which displays things in different ways and frequently shows multiple posts at once.
Instagram fullscreen main feed: An answer to TikTok
TikTok has been able to gain a lot of ground. Because all TikTok videos are shown one at a time in full-screen, everything you do while viewing that post may be used as a measure of your response to that specific material. If you like a video, if you watch it through to the end, if you allow it to play twice more, swipe back to it again, each response is unique to that video, allowing TikTok to identify the particular elements of interest in each clip and align them with your profile for better feed recommendations.
That’s why TikTok’s feed is so addicting; while Instagram Reels are presented in the same manner, Instagram hasn’t yet been able to match TikTok’s algorithm as effectively, which has fueled its more immersive, more addictive “For You” content stream. The new presentation style might help to alter that, and it would be a significant shift in line with the wider TikTok trend, which shows no sign of slowing. Given that Reels is now the most engaging Instagram feature, and users spend more time watching Stories than they do with their primary feed, it makes perfect sense.
When will Instagram fullscreen main feed be released?
Usage of the Instagram fullscreen main feed feature hasn’t begun just yet. This is a back-end prototype at the moment, although it may still never be released. However, given its current state of development as shown here, It will undoubtedly be launched soon, providing Instagram users a new way to interact with all of the platform’s various content types while also conforming to Instagram’s stated emphasis on video content.
Indeed, in December, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said that video would be a major focus for Instagram in 2022:
“We’re going to double-down on our focus on video and consolidate all of our video formats around Reels”
At this time, this appears to be the ultimate step forward in terms of growth, and another move in its battle with TikTok, in order to retain its position as the top dog of social media apps.
