In 2021, Instagram tried to give social media professionals and content creators a lot of work, as it didn’t stop releasing news for a minute. ( Directory submissions ) Now, we have our eyes on the main trends for Instagram 2022. The social network seems to be running after the “damage” of the burned image of the Facebook group of companies and the accelerated growth of the competition (also known as TikTok ). Therefore, it has invested heavily in updates to improve user experience and engagement and boost new forms of monetization within the app.
So, for 2022 on Instagram, we can predict a flurry of new features – perhaps even more than in 2021 – as we have information about features already in the testing phase out there. Check out our predictions about what’s new on Instagram in 2022 and the prominent trends we’re betting on for the year.
Six trends for Instagram 2022
1. Virtual reality and metaverse
One of the biggest surprises in the social networking universe this year was the announcement that Facebook, as a company, would now be called Meta. The news was also accompanied by the news that the company, which owns Instagram and WhatsApp, is putting into practice its plans to invest heavily in metaverse trends.
And it’s more than just Facebook that has invested in this. Virtual reality is rising and has received investments from other major companies. And considering Instagram’s tendency to be “inspire” by the market, the app won’t want to be left behind, right?
Facebook has already unveile its new metaverse platform, Horizon Worlds, which has been released to the public in the US and Canada. The space provides a virtual interaction zone and features that promise to change the remote work experience.
We still need to figure out how these projects should be incorporat into Instagram. Still, the most popular social network in the group certainly should be includ in this enormous investment.
2. Digital collectibles and NFTs
In this virtual reality market, new opportunities, trends, and forms of consumption continue to emerge. The most talked about (and controversial) is the NFTs (non-fungible tokens), like digital certificates of ownership that everyone can see and confirm their authenticity but never change.Directory submissions
Some examples of products market through NFTs: Nike has been developing virtual sneakers with an artistic footprint to be sold online, while the Hybe label has announc a project to launch collectible digital items of its artists, such as the k-pop group BTS.
NFTs have been use mainly in the digital arts and entertainment market. Bringing the topic to the world of social media, in 2021, Twitter chairman Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet for just over $2.9 million as an NFT:
Instagram already has a project in the internal testing phase to start bringing this market to the social network through the sale of “Collectables.” According to an insider, the option to sell collectible digital items that can be made available on Instagram Shopping and purchas through NFTs is already in development.
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3. Videos are trending
It’s only possible to talk about trends by talking about videos. For another year, they will be the format of the day, and Instagram should further enhance its existing structures (and who knows, maybe even launch a new one).
In our 2021 Instagram retrospective, we’ve already listed some new features that arrived for videos this year and some tidying up that Instagram decided to do in the “house.” For 2022, we expect more updates focusing on Reels, Lives, Stories, and Videos in the Feed.
Speaking of Reels specifically, Instagram has ′′ borrowed ′′ several features from neighboring TikTok and its short videos. And this is sure to continue in 2022, even more so after Adam Mosseri ( @mosseri ) announced that the social network is now “no longer a photo-sharing social network.”
Update! (March/2022)
Speaking of borrowing, Instagram took inspiration from a handy feature of the neighboring app (and other video platforms) and announced the launch of automatic captions. This should further boost accessibility and user interest in the video format, as listening to the sound is not necessary to understand the content.
And making a bolder bet for videos: who knows, this metaverse will be incorporat into Instagram through videos too. A video creation feature with avatars or other virtual items would be an excellent solution for those who prefer to avoid appearing on camera but know that creating video content – especially for Reels – is essential nowadays.
Some people are currently using the iPhone’s emoji to create a virtual avatar that can replace you in some videos and photos. Will Instagram take this experience to the next level.
Update! (February/2022)
In January, Meta officially announced the arrival of its 3D avatars for Instagram! They were already starting to be test by Facebook since 2021, and now they are slowly arriving on Instagram too. For now, avatars will only be used as stickers in Stories, but this is another step towards avatars also being used in videos. Do you agree?
4. Algorithm changes
Yes, the algorithm that all social media takes a lifetime to try to interpret must change again, this time in more “radical” ways. To begin with, we already have promises of change coming. Instagram stated that it is testing two Feed options in chronological order and intends to release the novelty in early 2022. Directory submissions
We bet that this chronological order will be offere as an alternative (as Twitter already does, letting the user choose the way they prefer to view the order of posts in the Feed) and that the other option should be to make the main Feed increasingly compose of suggestions.
Well, one of the main advantages of TikTok is precisely the ease of reach that the app provides for any content. Any person or business can start from scratch there and proliferate. As a result, TikTok has become more attractive to users, especially those who see social networks as a showcase, business tool, or way of life.
Instagram has been trying to adopt this standard little by little, first with Reels — which from the beginning follows a different logic from the rest of the app and has its Feed, basically composed of suggested content — and now with the Main Feed, which has been gaining more and more insertion of recommend content from accounts that you don’t even follow, but might be interest.
Another resource that impacted this was the collaborative posts, which now bring content published in co-authorship with users that we do not follow to our Feed.
5. More Engagement Resources
The “Use yours” sticker was perhaps not the most impactful novelty of the year for the social media market, but, in our humble opinion, it was one of the most exciting features that Instagram launched this year.
In addition to encouraging people to be more motivated to post Stories, now that they receive suggestions and inspiration for what to post, the sticker has a high potential to go viral and provides incredible engagement, generating conversations and shares. In addition, it follows the logic we mentioned about changing the algorithm, with an intelligence that makes it increasingly easier to discover organic content posted by users we still don’t mind.
Another novelty that was announc in the final stretch of 2021 was the option to respond to a Reels video with another video, something that has been happening on TikTok for a long time and is also a great way to generate continuous engagement, directing the user from one post to another with more precision.free directory submission sites
For 2022, Instagram must continue investing in resources encouraging engageYouSo you expect baby see more stuff like this to facilitate interactions and build communities around brands and content creators.
6. Marketplace expansion
Instagram’s tendency to continue investing in becoming a significant marketplace has already entered our bets for 2021. And it will again enter this trend forecast for 2022!
This year, one of the highlights of “sales on Instagram” was Live Shopping, which was on the rise mainly on commercial dates that usually boost sales through live transmissions that offer products for users to buy right there, in the middle of Live. Something like those telesales channels that were very common in the 2000s.directory submission sites
Among some of these features are Instagram Checkout and the Instagram Affiliate Program, and new ones are bound to keep popping up. Once again, the market around virtual reality would also fit in very well in this sense, especially with the development of a Store for the sale of Collectables, which we mentioned above.
