The app Business Insider calls, “Facebook’s cooler younger sibling” is about to step it up a notch.  Instagram now has more than 1 billion monthly active users. With its massive popularity among society, it shocked the public when the founders of the app, Kevin Systrome and Mike Krieger, stepped down a little over a week ago after wanting to break away from CEO Mark Zuckerburg.  

Instagram’s parent company Facebook officially appointed Adam Mosseri in their place last Monday.  Adam Mosseri’s beginnings stem from his education at NYU’s Gallatin School of Interdisciplinary Study, studying media and information design where he created his own design consultancy, a crucial component Instagram has that Facebook lack’s in comparison to. Mosseri joined Facebook in 2008 as a design director, then later transitioned to product management and oversaw Facebook’s News Feed.  He played a crucial role in transforming the platform into, what was then, the world’s most popular social media platform and the driver of billions of dollars of advertising profit. Earlier this year, Mosseri accepted the role of Vice President of product for Instagram. What is in store for the ever growing platform is now under his wing.

Mosseri is now in charge of balancing the needs of Instagram including headcount, engineering resources and growth, in addition to the priorities of Facebook including cross-promotion to Instagram’s younger audience and revenue to contribute to the corporation’s earnings reports.  Users might now expect to see a shift in notifications and shortcuts linking back to Facebook, or more ads in the Stories and feed. Instagram hasn’t highlighted the ability to syndicate your Stories to Facebook, which could yield a massive hit for the sister platform. According to Tech Crunch, Instagram Stories average 400 million daily users whereas Facebook Stories and Messenger Stories’ have about 150 million users combined.

Mosseri will also be responsible for keeping Instagram from being used as a pawn for election interference in the run-up to the 2018 U.S. mid-terms.   Mosseri’s experience dealing with the unintended consequences of the News Feed, such as fake news in the wake of the 2016 election, will help him with this in addition to predicting how Instagram’s growth will affect culture, politics and user well-being. 

The vast diversity amongst users is one of the tool’s biggest advantages, according to Time Magazine and one of the most important things for the company to support in the transition of leadership.  Mosseri exhibits extensive personability and sharp, serious and empathetic traits to those he encounters.  He both embodies the spread of Facebook and its umbrella of apps making a positive impact in the world, while also aware of the work and complex choices necessary to prevent misuse.   

 On the rise of this diversity spectrum, users can expect to see growth in, is the recent trend of vertical video, which has now become popular enough that YouTube and Vimeo have adopted it as well.  Augmented reality and virtual reality filters are becoming more and more popular and have become a key tool in making Instagram stand out amongst other platforms including Snapchat, where it began. For example, pop-singer and founder of Fenty beauty, Rihanna and Kylie Jenner, CEO of Kylie Cosmetics, created filters which people can unlock only by following those celebrities accounts on Instagram, no other app has developed that feature. Mosseri will oversee the continuation of technology advancement and development. 

Facebook chief of Product Officer Chris Cox, Mosseri’s boss, writes, “Kevin and Mike, we will never fill your shoes. But we will work hard to uphold the craft, simplicity, elegance, and the incredible community of Instagram: both the team and the product you’ve built.”