Indian users recently opened their Instagram apps to find the Reels tab front and centre, signalling a quiet but significant shift. The platform, known for pastel-toned grids and curated photo diaries, seems to be reimagining itself as a short-video-first entertainment platform. Meta, Instagram’s parent company, is testing this new Reels-first interface in India and South Korea, redefining what the app stands for.
The experiment changes the app’s default behaviour: Stories remain up top, the DM button now sits in the middle of the navigation bar, and Reels have been promoted to the second tab. Users can still swipe between sections, but this subtly signals what Instagram wants to prioritise: attention and watch time.
The reason is simple: Indian brands have embraced Reels with gusto. An excellent example is Zomato, which uses hyper-localised Reels that play on trending topics and quirks of everyday life. Its campaigns are shared because they resonate. Similarly, Myntra uses Reels to showcase fashion and not hardsell its products. These brands demonstrate that success in short-form content isn’t about cutting traditional ads down to size; it’s about crafting stories that lend themselves to the platform.
That apart, personal photo-sharing on Instagram is already on the decline. Reports suggest there has been a drop in ‘friend sharing’ from around 11% in 2023 to around 7% in 2024. “But while personal sharing may be on the decline, the 1-to-1 and 1-to-many personal social signaling is still strong and key to Meta’s engagement and growth,” says Kabir Kochhar, founder & managing partner, Audacity Venture Capital.
The decision to test this new interface in India underscores Meta’s confidence in the market as a sandbox for innovation. India is the largest open market for short-form video after TikTok’s exit, and people here are still curious. Many would jump back on TikTok in a heartbeat if it returned. Instagram knows this, so testing in India is almost like securing their ground before that happens.
Experts say the shift is structural rather than seasonal. Ambika Sharma, founder and chief strategist, Pulp Strategy, says, “Globally, and in India, people have shifted personal sharing into closed spaces like WhatsApp or private groups. Instagram is now more a broadcast and entertainment hub than a personal diary.” According to her, “Internal data shared by Meta shows that Reels already drive the bulk of time spent, and static posts have a fraction of the engagement compared to Reels.”
India’s scale, diversity, and appetite for content make it an ideal lab for global rollouts. It is the largest market by users, highly engaged, and still under-monetised. It is also the only market where TikTok’s absence has left such a scale of opportunity. Testing here lets Meta see how a billion-plus market responds to a Reels-first identity. The challenge is that India’s market is fragmented, price-sensitive, and ROI-focused, so ad products must deliver measurable value quickly.
For Yasin Hamidani, director, Media Care Brand Solutions, the test reveals Meta’s long game. “Instagram’s Reels-first experiment signals a pivot towards becoming an entertainment-first platform, much like TikTok. By opening directly into Reels, Instagram is leaning into snackable video as the default mode of engagement. It’s less about abandoning its roots and more about meeting consumer demand for video-first discovery.”
“Success on any platform comes from observing what already works and then adapting it to your own context,” says Hitesh Bubbar, co-founder, The Right Click. That’s exactly what Instagram is doing here. It knows short-form video works, and it doesn’t want to lose that attention. In a way, it’s replicating a format that TikTok pioneered, but adapting it for Instagram’s ecosystem. “Platforms have to evolve to where the attention is, otherwise they get left behind,” says Bubbar.
User is king
The shift for Instagram comes with both opportunity and risk. “The Reels-first approach is necessary for platform survival in an attention economy where entertainment trumps social networking,” notes Harnish Shah, founder & CEO, 3 Minds Digital. “However, this creates a delicate balancing act. The risk is more about losing the intimate, personal connection that differentiated Instagram from other platforms.”
For Meta, the pivot is as much about economics as engagement. Traditionally, video-based CPMs are higher than static, notes Kochhar. “This combined with the fact that Reels have a higher virality does allow for greater monetisation. For creators, this opens up additional channels of monetisation as well as higher revenue potential. Advertisers have access to a richer visual medium with better engagement hooks.”
While Reels may resemble TikTok’s model, Instagram still has a more curated identity. “The platform’s more stringent verification process and evolving algorithms help curate a community of creators and brand collaborators with a genuine online presence. This focus on authenticity distinguishes Instagram from TikTok’s more ‘anyone can go viral’ ethos,” says Jameela Kapasi, owner, Digitotal. She notes that the move isn’t a rejection of its photo-sharing past, but rather a smart evolution. By embracing both static photos and dynamic video, Instagram addresses the pressure of posting ‘perfect’ pictures and allows for more authentic sharing.
That duality, between personal and performative, has long been Instagram’s defining paradox. As Sharma puts it, “Reinvention is necessary. Attention has moved to short-form video and platforms that do not evolve lose relevance. But there is risk. The identity that made Instagram aspirational – the curated photo feed – is fading. If the shift feels too abrupt, legacy users may disengage.”
