Looks like Instagram is testing yet another TikTok-focused addition, with a new ‘Audio’ tab appearing for some users in their Explore options. This feature will enable you to search for specific tracks in the app.
As shown in the above example used by Social Media Today, this new tool will enable users to search for songs by keyword, and provides a listing of registered tracks on Instagram’s system. After you have tapped a result it now takes you to a separate page for that song or musical audio. You will be given the option to either save or use the audio in your own post, while it also shows you all the Reels clips that have used that same song or sound.
This is very similar to the same feature on the TikTok App. Search for a song title in TikTok and you will find the same results in the ‘Sounds’ tab. Furthermore, tapping through on a music title within a TikTok clip will display all the clips that have used the same audio, which lends itself to increased interaction and sharing in the app as users look to tap into the latest trending tracks, and see how others have created clips around certain music themes.
Social Media Today’s study shows that you can also do the same within Instagram Reels itself. Just tap on the music ticker at the bottom of any Reels clip and it will display the same listing of all the Reels that have used that track as this new Audio tab does.
“So really, it’s not anything new, functionally, but it does provide another way to maximise music engagement within the app, and maybe highlight some of the latest Reels trends to a wider audience,” the reporter added.
Which is likely the real focus here. Instagram is still trying to work out how to make Reels a bigger element, in an effort to fend off rising competition from TikTok, and this new discovery option could be another way to showcase the best trends based on popular tracks.
The study confirmed that Instagram is also reportedly working on a new incentive program that would compensate its users for creating Reels clips, while it is also trying out new ways to share Reels to Facebook, increasing their reach across its network.
The question is, will this initiative get more users or people to engage with Reels clips? Maybe, to some degree. The real question or bigger puzzle should be, “Will this new strategy by Instagram be enough to get people away from TikTok?” Very unlikely!
From the above data shared last week on Twitter, it shows that users are now spending as much time on TikTok, on the average, as people are on the Facebook app. It’s clear that TikTok users are already spending more time on the app than those on Instagram.
It’s no doubt that TikTok has continued to go from strength to strength irrespective of the various challenges. TikTok seems to be the leader on new trend shifts like music engagement, which has Facebook constantly playing catch-up.
Conclusion
No doubt, Facebook is still maintaining its position in terms of overall users and overall engagement, and it has a great advantage in the area of ad spend and reach. But TikTok continues to threaten Facebook’s ability to engage with younger audiences, and the potential for that to form new habitual behaviours that stem through into older brackets.
What does this then mean? Is Facebook at risk? No. According to the report by Social Media Today, the platform is still number one, and its ongoing growth in new regions has it positioned for steady evolution moving forward, as does its investment in AR and VR technologies. But it’s competition, TikTok, has been able to gloss over Facebook’s various challenges and seeks to continue. This will no doubt be a concern, on some level, for founder Mark Zuckerberg and his team, and will ensure the app remains a problem for Facebook for some time yet.
What then is the solution for Facebook? In its recommendation, Social Media Today said that rather than for the social media giant to just let it happen, it will no doubt continue to add replica features like these, which seems to be the case here. These tiny, duplicate added features will help to keep its (Facebook) users on its apps by giving them the same functionality that they can then engage with among the networks of friends that they have already created. This, rather than them floating off to TikTok.
That has been an effective strategy for the social media giant thus far. “But maybe,” the recommendation adds, “this time, it will need to come up with its own new innovations to somehow get larger chunks of its user base back to Facebook and IG instead.”
