Top Instagram Trends for 2020

By Olivia Manthey

With 2019 behind us, the roaring ’20s are back, and they’re alive and well. With the new year comes a lot of new things. From New Year’s resolutions to new trends, change is coming! Although there will be too many trends to count by the end of the year, we’re here to start you off with a few from one of our favorite apps, Instagram. Social media in general is more lively than ever, and Instagram seems to be at the top of its game. People are using it to casually post their vacation pictures, while at the same time, mega influencers and celebrities who have millions of followers are influencing future generations. Whether you’re here or there, we are here to share a few of Instagram’s top trends for 2020!

 

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Happy Holidays from me and my new tap shoes!!

A post shared by Brie (@brielarson) on Dec 25, 2018 at 1:10pm PST

Authentic & Unfiltered

2019 was a massive landmark year for Instagram and its content. There wasn’t nearly as much as FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)-inducing content, but a more real and genuine twist. People are more apt to follow a person if they post real and relatable content than a person who comes across as “perfect” all the time.

 

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YOU GUYS! Three years ago I drove past this space and wondered who owned and what they had planned. After many months of digging I fell in love with the story, concept, and aesthetic…was this the home for Happily Grey?! Was it finally time to create a space of our own to show what truly lives at the heart of our brand?! Well- dreams CAN come true, you guys!! In the middle of a holiday season that I have SO very much to be thankful for, I add this to the list. After years of hardwork and a BIG leap of faith, we open our doors in January 2020. I could not be more excited, or more nervous, OR more ready! This is the first big step of many planned for 2020. Thank you guys for allowing me to do what I love and share it all with you. I’m ever grateful! Come see us, come shop, come experience HG! Open date & details coming soon! xx M

A post shared by Mary Lawless Lee (@happilygrey) on Dec 18, 2019 at 9:03am PST

Captions

Not only are captions becoming longer and more centered around what the individual is thinking, but there’s also thought that many people will soon start with a caption and find a picture to match it. This is a total 180-degree shift from how people have been using Instagram the past several years, with the photos being front and center and some going so far as not to include any caption, only emojis or symbols or even nothing at all. With the world becoming more acclimated to sharing their real thoughts and feelings on social media, we think that 2020 will see users on Instagram putting their written words out there for everyone to see.

Stories

Instagram Stories, which allow users to post a carousel of twenty-four-hours-only content separate from their main feed on the app, have been trending. Their popularity has been extensive, and it seems there is no way IG stories are going away anytime soon. Another influential platform that goes hand-in-hand with IG stories is TikTok, a video sharing social networking app where users can make three-to-fifteen second videos. They can also edit them to include music and effects. TikTok was the #2 most downloaded app in 2019. And if you think that’s impressive, they also have a whopping 500 million active users. With IG stories having just about the same amount of users as TikTok, they’re both predicted to keep growing. You can expect to see a lot of TikTok influence on IG stories, as teenagers love to get together to make TikToks, and now adults are jumping on the bandwagon.

 

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7:30 rise and shine 7:32 first call and emails ‍♀️ 8:30 motivating myself to go to Barrys 9:30 quickest shower in the world 9:45 first meeting (included breakfast yay) 10:30 more meetings and fittings‍ 11:30 you guessed it, more meetings 12:30 yup, more fittings! 1:00 Starbucks run (extra foamy please) + sandwich ☕️ 3:00 buying snacks 4:30 cocktail event (mingle tingle) Side note – finding a restroom in NY – impossible 5:30 fitting (with Nicholas, who became a good friend) 7:00 making my way downtown ‍♀️ + another happy meal in the car 8:00 checking in to a new hotel and quuuuuickly getting ready in 20 minutes ‍♀️ 8:30 off to the harpers bazaar party 9:00 in the car 9:30 red carpet 11:30 friends birthday party 3:00 good Night!! (Ps: this is the more casual day during fashion week normally it contains also shows/severely outfit changes in the car)

A post shared by Caroline Daur (@carodaur) on Sep 15, 2019 at 11:25am PDT

IGTV

With Instagram Stories skyrocketing in popularity within the past year, you can also expect a lot of influencers—and even regular folk—to start using IGTV. It is essentially streaming television on Instagram, with video content that is curated explicitly to a page’s audience. IGTV allows longer videos than IG’s main feed or Stories, and average IGTV video “episodes” can be from about three to ten minutes. Instagram also just came out with a new series feature. This will allow users to create a series of videos for their followers. It is set to be a big trend in 2020, primarily with influencers and media outlets.

No More Likes

You might have heard Instagram is making the shift to a “no like” platform, encouraging people to focus more on the content than the number of hearts next to it. This means there will likely be higher levels of quality, but possibly less quantity when it comes to posts. We love that Instagram made this decision, as studies have shown Instagram likes have been the cause of a lot of dissatisfaction, even depression and anxiety, in teens and adults. The thought process of, “If I can’t get as many likes as Becky, then I’m not as pretty as her,” will hopefully be eliminated or at least eased by this change. Everyone is talented and incredible in their unique way, and likes should not measure that.

What trends are you most looking forward to? Have you noticed any changes on Instagram and other social media platforms lately? Let us know in the comments or hit us up on our social channels @viemagazine!