TikTok meets Snapchat meets… Instagram?

Instagram just announced its latest batch of features, and if you’re experiencing déjà vu, that’s because you’ve quite literally seen all of this before.
The TikTok Treatment: Reposting Arrives
Instagram is now actively encouraging users to fill their feeds with other people’s stuff through the new repost feature. Remember when your Instagram feed was supposed to be a curated window into your life? Apparently, that window is now a funhouse mirror, reflecting everyone else’s content back at you.
Snap Maps: The Sequel Nobody Asked For
Instagram has also decided to gift us with location mapping because nothing says “I’m having an authentic moment” like broadcasting your precise whereabouts to your followers. Snapchat’s Snap Map feature gets the Instagram Map treatment, complete with the ability to see where your friends were last active and discover content from specific locations. The feature generated significant online backlash, with Instagram head Adam Mosseri having to step in and clarify that the location-sharing feature is an opt-in feature, and not enabled by default.
The Activity Tab: Return of the Dead
Remember Instagram’s old activity tab that showed what your friends were liking and commenting on? The one they killed off because it was, frankly, a bit creepy? Well, it’s back—zombie-style—but now it’s focused exclusively on Reels interactions. To Instagram’s credit, they’ve added more privacy controls this time around. You can now hide your likes and mute others’ activities.
This begs the question, at what point does Instagram stop being Instagram and start being a generic social media smoothie with all the flavors blended into an unrecognizable mush?
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