Adam Mosseri on Instagram, Algorithms, & How To Beat TikTok

Instagram in 2025 prioritizes direct messaging for private social connection and Reels for public entertainment, marking a significant departure from its original grid-based photo format. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri identifies this shift as a response to changing user habits, where passive video consumption increasingly occurs on large screens. While the platform recently launched on Amazon Fire TV, it resists the "television" label, focusing instead on maintaining a symbiotic relationship between short-form video and social interaction. A critical component of this strategy involves exploration-based ranking, an audition system that promotes content from small accounts to foster new talent. Meanwhile, Threads continues to position itself as a civil, idea-focused alternative to more polarized text-based platforms, aiming to capture cultural relevance without succumbing to the combative nature of its competitors.