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It is no coincidence that

Instagram

is becoming more and more like

TikTok.

In

Meta

they are clear that the greatest threat to their future is this new social network and they have shown no qualms about cloning its operation.

For two years they have tried with

Reels,

a section within the app to share short videos with other users and that has gradually displaced other sections of the app such as conventional

stories

or photographs.

Meta plans to go a little further now.

Starting in the coming weeks,

all videos of less than 15 minutes

that are uploaded to the social network will be

automatically shared as Reels,

as explained by the company on its website.

This means that any Instagram user,

even those who do not follow the author of the video

, will be able to see these creation videos and use it to make remixes or duets (a popular format on networks like TikTok in which the original video is complemented with a reaction or an additional video made by someone else).

The only way to prevent these videos from being public is

to make the user's own profile private

.

The decision will not affect already published videos, which will continue to be shown only to those who follow the author on Instagram, but both already published videos and Reels will now share a tab within the profile.

It's not the first big change in functionality that Instagram is undergoing, but it certainly

does away with what little was left of the original app

, created to share photos with friends and family.

And the change in strategy does not only affect this application.

Meta is also going to

modify the Facebook app to show more Reels

and algorithmically selected content that doesn't depend on what friends and family upload to the social network.

Now, when opening the Facebook app on mobile,

the first thing the user will see is this section of content automatically selected

by strangers according to their previous interests.

To find photos, messages and videos from family and friends (or from the pages within Facebook that you follow) you will have to go to the

feeds

tab .

For Meta, such an abrupt change in strategy is practically inevitable.

Although TikTok still has a smaller audience than Instagram and Facebook, it is growing rapidly and has practically displaced these two applications as the epicenter of network culture.

Memes and relevant topics emerge more and more frequently from this social network and then spread to the rest.

Many of the videos shared on Reels within Instagram actually come directly from TikTok, something Meta grudgingly agrees to but is trying to nip in the bud.

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