With Spotlights, Instagram Walks Into Snapchat's Playground

Back in October, Instagram launched Spotlights for the first time. Spotlights are libraries of curated user-generated video that come to form one long piece of content. The first time they rolled out, it was for Halloween. Then came Christmas. Today, Instagram is looking to make Spotlights a more permanent feature.

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Starting now, Instagram is making Spotlights on just about any topic. This way you could discover video compilations of fitness content, dogs and cats, or even cars.

Instagram Spotlights are video compilations of curated user-generated content.

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Instagram hopes Spotlights will not only keep people engaged and coming back for more but also as a new tool for users to discover new content and users they wouldn’t normally have followed, according to Gabe Madway, Instagram’s communication manager:

[quote]Spotlight is where you go to discover things you don’t follow but might end up following. Things you never expected to see.[/quote]

Instagram selects and curates content using hashtags, and at this stage it is not clear what the selection process is – if it is based on trends, popularity, or something else. Time will tell.

One thing’s for sure though, Spotlights are a direct hit at Snapchat Stories, and Twitter Moments.