Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Sep 01, 2025

Instagram Could Lose to TikTok in Both Photos and Videos

Instagram Could Lose to TikTok in Both Photos and Videos

As Instagram continues to focus on video, Generation Z are posting their photos on TikTok instead. Could Instagram lose out on both formats?

TikTok’s domination in short-form video is not the only thing Instagram should be worried about. In the time that Instagram has shifted ever further away from its roots as a photo-sharing app, Generation Z has found a new space to post their selfies and photo-dumps — and that’s TikTok.

As Instagram pushes full-steam ahead with its plan to focus on short-form video, TikTok has gradually become the app of choice for younger users to spill the contents of their camera roll.

Whereas once Instagram was a breeding ground for the latest photo trend, that space seems to be increasingly taken up by TikTok. In October last year, Mashable reported on the growing trend for Generation Z users to post their photo dumps on TikTok, rather than Instagram.

The TikTok iteration of a photo dump is similar to Instagram photo dumps but not limited to ten pictures. TikTok users can select as many images from their camera roll as they want and then edit the collection of images — either on TikTok itself or on an external mobile video editor like Splice — to curate a rapid video of their best moments in photographs.


On Tiktok, the tag #photodump currently boasts 1.6 billion views, while Instagram has 1.8 million posts for the same hashtag.

With Instagram prioritizing Reels over stills, the world’s biggest photo-sharing app no longer promises the same level of engagement for images it once did and so younger users are turning to TikTok instead. In turn, this has spawned several other photo trends on TikTok that are unique to the app.

A trend, dating back to March 2021, encourages TikTok users to post the last 10 photos they saved on their phones — while the more recent #last5photos trend asks them to only share the last five images on the camera roll.

Meanwhile, the #27photochallenge trend invites TikTok users to add 27 of the best photographs they have taken and make it sync to a sound by the band Harmless. This challenge has over 32.4 million views and appears to be popular with younger users as well as professional photographers on the app.

TikTok’s viral #ThePhoto trend has also swept the platform with 2.4 billion views and asks users to post the best selfie or photo of themselves while comparing it to how they look now.


According to Bustle, the popularity of #ThePhoto on TikTok is that it’s reminiscent of the nostalgic joy of finding a great photograph of oneself in the early 2000s then posting it on Instagram or Facebook, and eagerly waiting for the likes and comments to roll in. The thrill of getting that perfect shot for social media has been re-imagined into a new trend for TikTok.

A recent report revealed how the constant pivots by tech giants like Instagram have worn on Generation Z and led them to look elsewhere online. It’s clear that younger users are still keen to showcase their photography on social media, but are simply curating and repurposing their images for TikTok.


The continuing relevance of photography for Generation Z is further evident given the soaring popularity of photo-sharing app BeReal, which continues to hold onto the number one spot in the U.S. on Apple’s App Store charts — even beating TikTok.

Still photography is not the dying form Meta makes it out to be and so it is very possible that Instagram may not only lose to TikTok in terms of video but will cede photography, too.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
×