Why carousels, right now
Uppbeat Blog · Nov 3, 2026
What’s working on Instagram right now? Carousels and sends, says Adam Mosseri
By Sandy Beeson · published Nov 3, 2026
Instagram head Adam Mosseri told Colin and Samir that carousels are “having a moment”. A carousel with music added can now appear in the Reels viewer, and one you scroll past can come back later showing slide 2.
People flick through slide by slide, so they’re more likely to like the post or send it to a friend. In Mosseri’s words, “It’s just a deeper, richer format, so it drives more engagement even beyond time spent.”
He named sends per reach as the metric to watch for reaching people who don’t follow you yet.
Read the article ↗- Original interview: Colin and Samir, “Why Instagram Completely Changed Its Mind” (YouTube)
- The carousel clip: Colin and Samir on Instagram, “Why you should post carousels according to @mosseri” (Nov 1, 2026)
Supporting data, published Oct 25 (just before the 7-day window): SocialHipper studied 118,404 posts from 3,162 creators (Jan–Oct 2026). The median carousel got 0.84% engagement per follower, against 0.59% for Reels. Carousels beat the same creator’s own Reels for 65% of creators. Engagement here means likes plus comments, not reach. See the study ↗
