← Call Her Creator with Katelyn Rhoades
Call Her Creator with Katelyn Rhoades
116. The Weekly Scroll: Big Instagram Shifts for 2026: AI Content, Reels Auto-Scroll & Carousel Changes
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Hello, friends. Welcome back to another episode of the Weekly scroll, where instead of scrolling for updates, I scroll for you every single week. I handpick the most important updates in social media. Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and I break them down here in plain language and tell you exactly what it means for your growth. Today's episode is brought to you by Club Influence, your all in one monthly membership for creators who want to grow on Instagram without spending hours researching trends. Who wants to do that? Don't doom scrolling. No, we're not doing that in 2026. So let us hand pick your viral reels, ideas, your content prompts and your canva templates. We design them every single month for you. The viral reels trends are every single Monday so you can focus on creating, posting and just building that momentum. And also special, special shout out to my friends over at Stan who Power Call Her Creator podcast. They're hosting a massive giveaway right now, guys, and it's the only, only one that you need to focus on in January 2026. So they're covering one person's living expenses for an entire year so that you can go all in on your dreams. It's called their Dare to Dream giveaway. One winner is going to receive $100,000 and five runner ups will each receive $10,000 to support their business. Entries are open now and they close at the end of this month, January 31st. If you've been waiting for a sign to finally bet on yourself in 20, this is it. The link to enter is in my show notes. All right, let's dive into this week's biggest shifts. Most of these are from Instagram. I do have one from YouTube. AI is involved. I had to dig this week, guys. There wasn't too much going on and I'm assuming it's because we're just getting back into the groove of everything. I hope everyone had a really amazing holiday break with their family and friends. But let's get into today's update. So number one, Instagram chief, Adam Mossri, he outlines the challenges of AI content. So basically, Adam has released a long statement outlining how AI generated content is reshaping Instagram and why, quote, unquote, authenticity is becoming infinitely reproducible. So some of his core points. 1. AI can now replicate. Creators work at scale. AI content is quickly becoming indistinguishable from human made content. I really hate this. Personal sharing has moved from feeds to DMs. Creators are using raw content as proof of authenticity. That's why if you're seeing more unedited videos, it's because people are trying to say, hey, I'm not a bot, I'm not AI. This is really me. Don't worry, I've got some good news to all this. But a couple more cliff notes from him, AI will soon replicate that raw aesthetic too, is what he's saying. Instagram is not going to be able to label all AI content. Instagram plans to verify and highlight authentic creators instead. Boy, I really hope so. And more transparency is coming around who is behind each account. So bottom line from Instagram, creators will need to adapt and get better at originality in an AI heavy world. So what does this really mean? Like, let's read between the lines here. This isn't Instagram protecting creators, unfortunately. It's really just Instagram justifying the flood of AI content. It's here, it's coming, it's. It's indistinguishable. As he said, I'm see, I've seen so much AI content that I'm like, oh crap, that looks so real. I've seen a lot of like, celebrity stuff. So when I see the celebrity videos, it's usually like a crazy celebrity with another crazy celebrity to where you're like, okay, this could not really be a thing. So I know it's AI, but like, there's stuff out there that I can't really tell that is AI. So Meta is investing massive resources into AI. They want people using it. More AI tools equals more content, more engagement, more profit, which this kind of sad me. So instead of slowing down the AI takeover, I feel like Instagram is kind of saying, hey, it's here. Deal with it. Be more original. And it's like, okay, we're trying, but at the same time, I don't know. Instagram's also hinting at more emphasis on verified creators, which I'm really thankful for, that more visibility into who's behind an account and then potential ranking advantages for real humans. Not sure how they're going to do that, but this would be good for us out there, the little people that are actually creating our content. Now, how does this affect you? So for creators, business owners, brands, this changes a few things pretty fast. One, generic content is going to disappear faster. If your content feels like it's a template or it's mostly faceless, you're not showing up. It's easily replicated. It's going to blend in with that AI noise. So you have to stand out in the crowd. Trust is going to become that real currency too. Like People already hesitate to share content because they don't know what's real. So accounts with visible human stories, consistencies, those are gonna win. And that's why I think it's super important for 2026 for you to show up. Whether that's photos of you, videos of you, whether that's a social media agency like Influence Marketing Studio posting on your behalf, but still collecting all the data from you, the images, the videos, editing it for you, getting it out. That's better than you just putting up some template you found off Canva, right? Verification may matter more this year too. I'm not 100% on this, but I'm thinking that maybe if you're verified on Meta, you might get a little bit more leadway in the newsfeeds. We'll have to see about that. But I do see our newsfeeds becoming less personal. I think this is where we can stand out with that personal connection that we share in stories that we share on videos like the Talking Head videos. I think if you really want to stand out and you have the balls to get in front of camera, then you can stand out this year. That's exactly how you're going to. Because if you're just using generic stuff and, you know, just going with the flow, you're gonna blend in and it's, you're gonna get left behind and that's just not what we're going to do in 2026. So strategic tips as a marketing expert that you can do one, double down on your human signals. Tell personal stories, talk about lived experiences, give your opinion, engage. Speaking of engagement, I have a 28 day engagement challenge out right now. The biggest thing, it's like simple tasks that you do daily on the Instagram app that help bring your likes, comments, shares up. And it's just little engagement tactics. So I think getting on the 28 day engagement challenge will definitely help you. Cause it's gonna alert the algorithm, like, oh, this is a real person. They're communicating on the app, they're talking to people, they're using this. Let's keep pushing their profile to more and more people. But this is where trust comes in, guys. You're going to have to show up this year or you're gonna get left behind. All right, enough AI crap. Like, I kind of wrote more notes on that, but I. It just makes me so ugly. I'm, I'm grateful for AI. It's made my life easier. It helps me write stories better because sometimes I'm not the best with my Words like I'll be fumbling for a word where like AI knows exactly what I'm thinking. But at the end of the day too, it's like every single caption I scroll by, I'm like, oh, that was written with ChatGPT. Like I know now. So I guess I'm just getting a little jaded from it all. And that kind of, this reminds me that what I'm saying here is true. The only way to really not blend in and to stand out is going to be showing up as your most authentic self and just being human. So that's my two cents for that update Number two, Instagram's Auto scroll for reels is rolling out wider. So this kind of came out in July, but not everyone had it, so access is clearly expanding now. So Instagram is rolling out Auto scroll for reels to more users. So when it's turned on, reels will automatically advance to the next video as soon as one finishes, there's no swipe needed. Now what does this mean for business owners? For brands? This may make it a little bit harder for you to get a comment or a conversion from a reel, because if they're watching your video, unless you have a strong call to action at the end, they're probably just going to keep going to the next video. So what can you do with this? A couple of things. One, don't, don't just create content without a plan at the end. Like what is your main goal? Do you want them to comment? A word? Do you want them to leave their 2 cents on something? Like think about something you can do to make them take the next action. So a strong opening, a strong closing, a strong call to action. Two, I think that shorter reels might benefit from the auto scroll just because shorter reels are going to have super tight edits. There's not going to be any fluff and they're going to get to the point fast, faster, right? So long slow reels, they might risk being skipped just mid video to the next video because they're, they're not grabbing attention fast enough. Bingeable content series I think will work very, very well. If reels are consumed like a stream, then creators who think in series are going to win. So if you did like a part one, part two, they're going to click on your profile and go to try to find part two. Or there's even the new functionality where you can link another reel with a reel. So if, if this new update is happening and reels are just going on to the next One, maybe start linking relevant reels to your reels so that they stay on your content and don't just skip over to another person's. This is my two cents. How do I think this affects you guys? Truly? I think that your reel may not get a pause moment anymore. So if someone isn't hooked by the end of what you have to say, then they're gone and you've probably lost them forever. That's why it might be quieter as far as comments go. Followers, you might, you know, they might not be coming as fast because they're just on to the next one. Completion rate is going to matter even more too for these reels. So if people drop off early, Auto scroll is going to work against you and play another video for them. So it's not like they didn't finish your video and now they can go look at another video of yours. Like, nope, they're onto the next person. So we need to make sure that they're completing your videos. So maybe even starting a reel saying watch till the end if you want to know X, Y, Z so that you know that they're getting to the end of the video. And then again, like reels are now going to be competing back to back so your content is immediately followed by someone else. No breath, no decision point. So again, you have to be very clear with your calls to action. I think this is one thing that I love about our membership with Club Influence. So we send you weekly Reels trends every Monday and it's typically like the whatever hottest trend is going on, we we hand pick a selection of them for you to choose from. Hopefully you do all of them, but we're very specific with how to, you know, make them make the next move. We've got specific calls to action there for you to use so you know what to tell your customers to do next. So you're not just like posting a video just to post a video. You've got a clear goal at the end. So if you're interested in joining us inside of there, I have linked Club Influence in the notes for you. It's something to, you know, think about for the new year. Next update Instagram carousel posts are looping automatically, so this one's kind of cool. Instagram is quietly updated photo carousel carousel behavior. So now when someone swipes past the last slide of your carousel, it's going to loop back to the first slide, which I actually think is kind of cool. Before users had to manually swipe backward to restart the post, but now it's just Going to go to the front now with this update, that means time spent on the carousel actually might go down because they're not having to scroll all the way back to, like, reread something. It's just going to loop back over. But if you have this access, you'll notice the loop when you continue swiping it. Just after the final slide, the next one comes. So this is a retention and time on content play. Instagram is keeping users inside of a single post longer. It's what they say that's their intentions with this. But again, I think if it's looping back over, it might make them leap faster because they can get to the content faster. I'm not sure. They say it will increase total engagement time per carousel, but that's just. That's where I go back to. I don't. I don't know if that will actually increase engagement. Maybe it will. If it's starting back over, maybe you're able to collect all your thoughts and leave a comment or share it or whatever you want to do. This is one I'm going to be watching because I'm not. I'm not sure how I feel about it. But in short, carousels are being treated more like reels, in my opinion, in terms of the engagement mechanism. So how does this affect you? Carousels can rack up more engagement passively. If someone swipes through once, they might unknowingly swipe again to where it starts over. So then that's going to ding it as them re watching your carousel. So there's like that good and bad of the looping that I was talking about. Your first slide needs to matter most because your cover slide, it can now be seen multiple times per user. So make sure that it's really calling out a pain point there. And I also think educational and storytelling carousels are just going to benefit the most here because people want to reread or rescan stuff typically when they're, like, learning things. So I believe with a looping carousel, I feel like I'm totally contradicting myself with this update. I don't. I don't know. I just see the good and the bad from this, right? I see the looping being like, okay, maybe I continue to loop and keep reading. But then also I see the being stopped right now. Like, I don't have this update yet. So when I stop at the end right now, I have to go all, all the way back and reread it. And I'm spending more time on that piece of content. So I Don't know, it's double edged sword. We'll have to see how this, how this plays out. Some strategic tips here. Maybe you design carousels to loop on purpose. So make slide one feel like a natural continuation of the last slide or end the last slide with like a teaser that leads back to the beginning slide. Ask a question that sends them back to the beginning, summarize, then restart the story. I don't know, there's. I think there's some ways to, to add some trickery here. I'm gonna have to play with this. Tighten that first slide hook though because people may see it twice. So make sure it's save worthy positioning. Make sure it's a bold statement. I do believe that step by step content will really work out for this update. Tutorials, checklists, frameworks. Read this again. Content that's gonna, that's gonna definitely work with a looping type carousel. Next update Facebook launches feed updates and algorithm controls so Facebook announced a series of feed formatting and algorithm updates aimed at making the platform feel more simple, more relevant as users behavior shift towards short form content. So some key changes here. Multiphoto posts now display in a standardized grid which that's kind of been a thing. Users can double tap an image in a carousel to like it on Facebook. That used to not be a thing. Feed content expands to full screen when it's tapped on. Search results shift to a visual grid layout kind of like that. Better posting tools are highlighted more clearly before publishing so you kind of know what you're doing. Better comments get cleaner replies, you're able to pin comments better visibility there. And friend recommendations may now be based on shared interests. So not just your mutual friends. Maybe you share the same interests of that person. What does this mean though? Why is Facebook doing this? I think Facebook is trying to retrain user behavior. They want more people to spend time in their feed, right? They want more people using Facebook so they're trying to make it more visually engaging. They're trying to add more content creation tools. I mean it make it makes sense. This is Facebook borrowing From Instagram's visual first experience, TikTok's immersive scrolling experience Threads algorithm. At a high level I feel like Facebook is saying okay, we know people aren't engaging like they used to on this app, so we're rebuilding the experience so that people will scroll. That's what I think. But we'll see strategic tips for you as a marketer on Facebook. 1. Treat Facebook like a visual platform. Again, there is no longer a link Dump app like you're. You're not just gonna share blog posts, but post carousels. Use image led storytelling, share short form video. I've been doing this for a while now. I treat Facebook like Instagram and it performs pretty well. Optimize multi photo posts intention so that first image, make sure it's strong. Make sure there's a clear visual hierarchy first, best photos first and then so on. And if you can tell a story, tell a story, it's going to flow from left to right. So starting with that first video or photo that you put in, that's the beginning of your story. And then last update I have for you guys is Meta is adding new AI features to edits, including object segmentations. Meta rolled out a final update in 2025 to its app, introducing AI powered object segmentation powered by Meta's segment anything model, also called sam. What, what does that mean? Caitlin. This means AI effects can be applied to a specific person or object in a video. You can blur, you can highlight, you can sparkle, you can tag items that move with the object on screen. You have the ability to add public reels into edits projects. You can update your storyboarding. I don't really use storyboarding. I don't know if anybody else does. I'd love to know how you feel about the storyboarding part for planning your videos. New title fonts, word level, caption styling, 150 new sound effects and there was some expanded font presets for the new year. Don't know if anybody saw those or caught those, but they were there in two. The app is still free, but Meta has hinted at paid features coming later. So stay tuned for that. I think that Meta is being very aggressive trying to close the gap with Capcut. Use it now while it's free before they start charging us. All right, and let's see. I had one more update. I forgot this is for real. The last update. YouTube is testing images like carousels inside of their Shorts feed. So what does this mean? Instead of just having to post videos on YouTube, you can now post up to 10 images as a short and it's gonna show up in the Shorts feed. So it's kind of like TikTok. I don't know if you've ever seen Carousel posts over on TikTok. I don't use TikTok. Um, I've only seen a couple times. But these carousel posts will appear mixed in with shorts. Very similar to what you see on Instagram. TikTok, it's in limited testing right now with a small group of creators. How does this affect you? Well, maybe this means you don't have to show up with a video to show up in shorts. Maybe you know, this is going to lower the barrier for entry. For creators who struggle with filming and are really good at pictures, we will see more competition inside the shorts feed. So video shorts will now compete with the image based post for attention. We'll see how that works out. Cross platform strategies just got easier. So I am a very heavy Instagram user and now that I know that I can start doing images over on YouTube shorts, that is going to be one of the new projects that we take on for 2026 is posting over there, posting photos as YouTube shorts just to see how they perform. Typically when you're an early adopter to something, it works out pretty well for you. So if you are on YouTube and you do have this option, I suggest jumping on it ASAP and just testing it out. All right, friend, that's your weekly scroll for this week. If you want weekly help staying ahead of the trends without burning out, coming out with us, we're inside Club Influence. You'll get weekly reels, prompts, templates and a plan. So you're not doing this alone. And I'm also putting the 28 day engagement challenge in the show notes for you too. Again, this is my 28 days of like simple tasks that you can make on Instagram to basically force your account into growth mode. Already had hundreds of business owners take this challenge and they've seen a huge increase in their likes and their comments and their shares. And I personally love this challenge and I think now is the best time to start it. All right, I love you. I'm sharing for you and I will see you next scroll.