It’s a strategy that, as annoying as it is, has mostly worked. Inevitably, the features aren’t as good as the original, but that’s not the point. Instagram knows that it only has to make features that are good enough to keep people from wanting to go anywhere else.

Instagram has made changes in recent days that appear to be aimed at attracting TikTok users while the short-video app’s future remains in limbo.

When TikTok went off the air (to use a very old-fashioned phrase), there was a scramble to find an alternative to its shortform video feed — and a similar scramble by various social networks to provide that alternative. (In fact, while I was writing this, Tumblr launched its new Tumblr TV feature.) The question is: how successful are they?

Open Instagram and go to Settings. Select Device Permissions. Look for Location and choose Never or While Using the App. To disable location tracking entirely, turn off Location Services in your phone's settings. These steps prevent Instagram from accessing or sharing your location.

As major platforms face mounting scrutiny over content moderation and user privacy, a developer's vision for ethical social media draws support

Although they're unplugged during filming, 'The Bachelor' contestants are much more online when they're off-screen

The social media influencer, best known as Siyah to her followers, boasted more than 310,000 followers on the platform.

But as a new vision to keep the app online takes shape, experts say sweeping changes could be in store regardless of who owns it. Wendy Gratereaux, a marketing professor of practice at UTSA, says the changes reflect a lot of things from addressing security risks to reflecting Western values.

With TikTok still absent from app stores, Instagram is offering creators $10,000 to $50,000 per month to exclusively post Reels, according to The Information.

Drawing on that same article by The Verge, Instagram head honcho, Adam Mosseri, was quoted as saying: ““The vast majority of what is uploaded to Instagram today is vertical”. And as even slightly savvy Instagram users know, portrait-orientation imagery tends to garner the most engagement – something that’s irked photographers in the past.

CapCut is a free video-editing platform created, owned and operated by ByteDance. It was launched in the U.S. in 2020. It was the second most downloaded photo and video app in the Apple App Store after Instagram, according to USA Today.

Whether TikTok stays with Perplexity AI's backing or goes, without that juicy algorithm ByteDance doesn’t seem willing to part with, the app won't ever be the same.