It’s become increasingly clear to most of the internet that Instagram has some pretty lofty ambitions of being the quintessential video-based social media platform, evolving out of its still-image roots. With that in mind, it’s going all-in on improvements to its currently available video options, this time around working on a mod-appointment system for live streams and a ‘like’ button for stories.
Instagram’s video virality
#Instagram is working on the ability to add moderators to the live video 👀 pic.twitter.com/Aqp0bVttwR
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) November 12, 2021
There’s no official word on either of these updates from Instagram itself, but reliable leaker Alessandro Paluzzi unearthed and reported them via his Twitter account.
Regarding live video streams, it looks like hosts will be able to choose a moderator from their “who’s watching”, who will then be in charge of monitoring, managing and moderating comments. This can often be a little difficult for creators to do themselves while simultaneously focusing on the stream itself.
Moderators will also have the ability to disable things like commenting and viewer questions, which, up to and including now, has fallen to the stream host themselves to do.
On the Stores side of things, the Meta-owned platform is testing the ability for users to ‘Like’ Stories, the temporary impromptu feed Instagram added in 2016 after glancing at Snapchat’s notes. Users can see who liked their stories in the same list that shows who of their followers have simply seen them.
Both reported additions point towards Instagram’s (and/or Meta’s) drive towards becoming the premier video entertainment platform, as ways to entice consumers and creators away from competing apps like TikTok. Though, with the monolithic popularity of that platform, it might be a bit of a fool’s errand.