In a recent statement, the CEO of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, announced that the platform will be placing a greater emphasis on PHOTOS in 2023. Candidly, his comment comes as a bit of a shock considering Instagram’s “all-in” approach to video-centric content in recent years.

The move towards impartiality between photos and videos on the platform is a welcome change for lots of users, as it allows for a more diverse range of content to be shared on the platform. Photos hold a special significance in terms of media, and many believe that Instagram has lost sight of this in their push for video content.

Mosseri acknowledged that the platform had been "over-focused on video in 2022" and that they had "pushed ranking too far" by showing too many videos and not enough photos. He added that they have since balanced the algorithm, so that users’ interactions with photos and videos are about equally weighted.

This change in focus aligns with a major tenet of Instagram's algorithm: historical interactions. In essence, if users tend to engage with a certain type of media—like photos or videos, for instance—the algorithm will prioritize those users’ feeds accordingly.

Whether you approve or disapprove of the direction, it’ll ultimately come down to whether user engagement and time spent on the app improves or not. So… we’ll see… Instagram’s no stranger to a change in direction 🤣