Instagram Trials Reels as Your Default Feed

Given the central role music plays on TikTok, the release of a new Taylor Swift album has quickly become a marquee moment for the platform. And TikTok is treating it with the weight you’d expect, unveiling a series of activations—including an in-person fan event—to mark the launch of Swift’s latest record, The Life of a Showgirl. TikTok says the month-long celebration will kick off the moment the album drops on October 3. Inside the app, fans will find a dedicated “experience hub,” designed to fully immerse Swifties in The Life of a Showgirl universe. The hub includes unlockable rewards, which fans have been able to access since mid-September, with more features being added to sustain momentum. Among them: - In-app Easter eggs: Searching “Taylor Swift” or commenting on related posts may trigger surprises. Shimmering glitter effects, animations on Taylor’s music detail pages, and weekly color shifts are just some of the perks awaiting fans. - Unlock the Door: At midnight ET on October 3, a mysterious virtual door will open in the hub. Only those who have completed all missions—like following @taylorswift, joining the Taylor Nation Bulletin Board, saving tracks, and creating videos with album sounds—will gain access to the hidden content. - Your Journey of Following Taylor Swift: Also launching October 3, this interactive feature takes fans through their personal history of following Taylor on TikTok. It highlights milestones such as joining The Eras Tour campaign or posting their first Taylor track, before revealing which song from The Life of a Showgirl best represents their journey. Each fan receives a personalized, shareable card. Beyond digital features, TikTok is also staging a real-world activation in Los Angeles. From October 3–9, fans can visit The Life of a Showgirl installation at Westfield Century City, where sets inspired by the “Fate of Ophelia” music video will allow visitors to film their own Swift-themed content. For TikTok, which has more than 32 million users following Swift on the app, the initiative is both a tribute to one of the platform’s biggest stars and a strategic push to amplify music discovery. The company has long touted its influence in the music industry. In 2023, 84% of songs that reached the Billboard Top 200 first gained traction on TikTok, while users of the app are 74% more likely to discover and share new music compared with other platforms. That makes the launch of a Taylor Swift album not just a pop culture moment, but a pivotal event for TikTok itself. And with this latest suite of digital and physical activations, the platform is making sure it maximizes every beat of it. 📢 If you're interested in Facebook Ads Account, don't hesitate to connect with us!🔹 https://linktr.ee/Adshinepro💬 We're always ready to assist you!

Instagram has confirmed it is trialing a new user interface that allows some users in India to open the app directly into the Reels feed, rather than the traditional main feed of static posts. In this test layout, the home screen looks familiar at first glance, but the focus is squarely on Reels. Tapping on the first post takes users straight into the full-screen, scrollable Reels format. The change, first flagged by Bloomberg last week, is designed to put greater emphasis on Reels engagement, an area where Instagram has seen its strongest growth. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri elaborated on the experiment in a recent update: “Reels and DMs have driven most all our growth at Instagram over the last few years, so we are exploring making them the first two tabs. This is just an option available to a small group of people in India starting today. Photos from accounts you follow are still in the home tab.” In other words, this is not a wholesale transformation of Instagram into a TikTok clone—but it does lean closer to that model. And it makes strategic sense. As Mosseri notes, Reels have become the centerpiece of the Instagram experience. Meta recently reported that overall video watch time on IG is up 20% year over year, and that Reels now account for 50% of all time spent in the app. Meanwhile, posting to the main feed has slowed, as users shift attention toward short-form video. For Instagram, that data makes the case for placing Reels front and center, ensuring the most engaging content type is also the most prominent. Instagram’s newly released iPad app also opens directly to Reels, signaling that this could become a broader option over time. At the very least, it appears inevitable that Instagram will allow more users to opt into a Reels-first experience, rather than sticking with static images. Of course, this evolution marks a sharp departure from Instagram’s roots, which will inevitably frustrate some long-time users. But the numbers are clear: Reels drive more attention and higher engagement. And when it comes to product decisions, Instagram is following the data. It’s also worth remembering that while many users insist they’d prefer a chronological feed, Meta’s internal research shows engagement rises when algorithms curate content. That reality makes it highly unlikely Instagram will ever return to a pure chronological feed. For now, Reels will continue to be the focus. Mosseri emphasized that the feed test in India is opt-in, and users can revert back to the standard experience at any time. 📢 If you're interested in Facebook Ads Account, don't hesitate to connect with us!🔹 https://linktr.ee/Adshinepro💬 We're always ready to assist you!

With the holiday season fast approaching, Meta has announced a raft of new ad updates, including AI-assistance tools (for Meta ads and for your own website), creator collaboration options, new product stickers for Reels, and more.Some really interesting notes, which could be relevant to your planning.First off, Meta’s launching an expanded “Business AI” option, which will enable any business to create their own, dedicated AI agent for their website, powered by Meta’s evolving AI tools. As you can see in this example sequence, now, Meta will facilitate the creation of AI bot creation for external sites, which will be able to answer questions about products, assist with custom options, and drive sales, all without you doing a thing. Well, other than setting it up in the first place.As explained by Meta: “Business AI is available as a free customizable sales AI agent that you can add directly to your business website. Your AI agent will be trained on your website and product catalog, guiding customers from discovery to purchase and helping your business to get more sales.”Brands will be able to create their own Business AI within the Meta Business Suite platform, with customization options that will make it easy to build the right AI bot for your needs.Meta says that the implementation of these bots won’t require coding knowledge or experience, with the bot learning from your website info, and on your social posts.“Business AI learns from your existing social posts, ad campaigns, and website to provide more immersive responses for customers.”So Meta will draw from a range of custom sources to build your bot’s model, which will ensure more uniformity and brand consistency with your bot experience.All of your Meta business bot conversations will be stored in your Meta Business Suite inbox, so you can refer back to what’s been asked, and answered, whenever you need.And you’ll also be able to use the same chatbot in Facebook and Instagram campaigns: As you can see in this example, once you’ve set up a chatbot, people who view your ads on Facebook and IG will be able to tap the queries at the bottom of the ad, which will take them through to a response from the bot on your site.It could be a handy option, though it does also mean making Meta a more significant part of your business, which could be problematic if/when Meta decides to start charging for access, or cuts them off entirely.It’s also interesting to note that Meta’s introducing this at the same time as it’s updating its terms to use any conversations with Meta AI in its ad targeting. You can bet that it’ll also be using any conversations with your branded chatbot as well, and because these will be product-specific, that will give Meta valuable data on what people are interested in, helping to supercharge its ad tools.Is that good for your business? Well, if you pay for Meta ads it probably is, as you’ll be able to retarget users who’ve engaged with your bot. But it will also mean that Meta can use that same info to power your competitors’ ads as well. Presumably, there will be some level of privacy and proprietary protection of the specific details of any engagement with your bots. But if Meta knows that a user used your chatbot to search for a certain item, that seems like a solid opportunity to then retarget that user with other promotions for similar or related products, be it yours or another brand’s.But concerns aside, it may be a simple way for brands to jump aboard the AI trend, and provide evolving experiences that better align with shifting habits and expectations.Meta’s business chatbots will initially be made available to companies in the U.S.In addition to this, Meta’s also got a new Meta AI Business Assistant, which will be active within Meta Ads Manager, and will be able to provide answers to questions relating to your performance in Meta’s apps. The tool is designed to help business owners and marketers improve the performance of their Meta ads and posts, based on Meta’s ever-growing pool of user data.Meta says that the bot will also be able to “easily resolve account issues,” including disabled accounts and spend limits.We’ll see how it performs on the front.Meta’s also trying out new virtual try-on options, which will give people new ways to see what clothing items look like on them before they make a purchase. So you upload an image of yourself, and Meta’s system will show you what different clothing items look like on you, which is similar to the virtual try-on options from Google and Pinterest.Meta says that it’s also testing a new experience that will use generative AI to show a “dynamically created personalized page” after a user clicks on an ad, highlighting relevant details to each specific customer, based on their query info and Meta’s understanding of their interests.It’s also trying out new AI sticker CTAs for Stories and Reels, which will provide a custom call to action. Meta’s also got some new creation tools for ads, including AI-generated music (which will produce custom audio based on ad content), AI dubbing to expand your potential ad audience, and HDR enhancement for video, which will use generative AI “to deliver videos with higher contrast and more vibrant colors.”  It’s also adding “persona-based image generation” for ads, which will create several different versions of an ad, “each designed to appeal to a specific type of customer or what’s performed well in the past.”  Finally, Meta’s also adding some new options to make it easier for brands to partner with creators on campaigns, including creator content recommendations in its Partnership Ads Hub, and AI-recommended Collabs, which will make it easier for brands to find and activate campaigns. It’s also expanding the opportunity for creators and brands to add product links to Instagram Reels, while it’s also expanding access to its creator APIs, which will enable more third-party platforms to support creator collaborations for campaigns.A heap of considerations here, with many implications for the upcoming holiday season push, and beyond. Clearly, AI is where Meta is headed with its AI tools, but the enhanced creator collaboration options also provide more food for thought for your approach.📢 If you're interested in Facebook Ads Account, don't hesitate to connect with us!🔹 https://linktr.ee/Adshinepro💬 We're always ready to assist you!