As Instagram insists on focusing on video, more and more photo-loving people are looking for a new alternative. A lot of people have been mentioning Vero, so I downloaded the app and am giving it a try. Is this the “new” Instagram? So far, I’m not quite convinced. You can find me on there with the same handle I use everywhere for my cosplay accounts- @SewGeekMama.

Vero vs. Instagram

Vero is a photo and video sharing app much like Instagram, but they keep everything chronological and don’t adhere to that frustrating algorithm that everyone on Insta complains about. Instagram started as a photo-sharing app that showed everything as it was posted, but later implemented an algorithm that lets it choose what you see. The algorithm is the reason why only a small percentage of your followers see your content. It decides what people want to see and only shows those posts. Some people have resorted to using promotional sites where you can buy likes and followers; similar to this site where you can buy TikTok likes. This inflates the numbers and makes the post seem popular, thus getting it in front of more people.

One thing that Instagram seems to discourage is variety. The algorithm wants people to focus on only one topic. One topic, one style and one color work even better.

For example: I normally post cosplay photos and people who follow me like cosplay pics. If I post a photo of my lovely dinner, it could be the greatest food photo ever, but Instagram is only going to show it to a handful of people because it doesn’t fit in that little defined box of what they think people want to see. In contrast, a post on Vero would show up to everyone following you.

In many ways Vero is similar- you can post photos and video, follow people, like posts and leave comments. Unfortunately Vero doesn’t have quite the audience Insta does, so the interaction is not at the same level. Even Madonna only gets a handful of likes on her posts there last time I checked.

Why Are People Leaving Instagram?

Besides the annoying algorithm which is already killing everyone’s reach, they now shifted their focus to video content and Reels. Instagram wants a piece of what TikTok already does so well. I’d love to give Reels a try myself, if only my account would let me. It’s incredibly annoying for me that I don’t have Reels, and there is no reason why. I have Googled for help, tried just about everything I can think of, and contacted customer service five times already, all with no luck. I didn’t even ever get a response from Instagram at all. They have terrible customer service! And again, Vero comes out ahead on that angle because they were extremely responsive to my request to get my account verified. It took less than 24 hours to get that little checkmark. Instagram takes forever and just denies me every time.

The Verdict

So do I think Vero will replace Instagram as THE photo sharing app? Not yet. I haven’t been on there long enough to really put my finger on what’s missing. Maybe it’s just the interaction I’m used to. Maybe it’s just always a little annoying trying to learn a new platform after you’ve dumped a lot of time into growing a following somewhere else.

I honestly just wish Instagram would realize people sharing photos is what made them, and maybe they should go back to what they do best. I won’t even click on a video on there anymore, because then all I get in my feed are videos. If I wanted that, I’d go to TikTok! I’m not sold on Vero enough to put a huge amount of time into yet, so for now I’m mostly just reposting the pics I put on Instagram and seeing how it goes.

10/25 UPDATE: I didn’t last long on there and haven’t looked at it in a while. It just doesn’t have the same feel as Instagram or the same amount of interaction. And I finally managed to get Reels on my IG account so I’ve been back on there a bit more. I didn’t close my Vero account though. I figure I’ll just leave it there and pop back in every once in a while and see how things are going over there.