Acquired by Facebook in 2012 for what is now the bargain price of $1 billion, Instagram continues to be a flagship platform within the Meta portfolio and TechCrunch continues to cover its evolution. Instagram has recently shifted its focus toward Reels, its short-form video product that is strongly reminiscent of TikTok, and its latest offshoot platform Threads, which is the company’s X challenger that could also become the wider public’s introduction to the fediverse and federated social networks.