Source: SOPA Images / Getty
Instagram got caught out here doing too damn much trying to be like TikTok and is now rolling back some controversial updates.
Make Instagram Great Again
Do we have to thank the Kardashian klan? Or were our collective groans loud enough to bully the folks on Instagram into pulling the plug on some recent feature changes?
Instagram has been under fire from its users, including Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, for what many feel is its attempt to emulate its direct competitor TikTok.
The main complaint from the Instagram faithful is that recommended posts are overshadowing posts from friends’ accounts on their accounts. A complaint our very own Bernard “Beanz” Smalls has complained about.
Further proof Instagram was trying its best to become TikTok was its testing of a full-screen video feature that the company now notes it is abandoning.
“Based on our findings and community feedback, we’re pausing the full-screen test on Instagram so we can explore other options, and we’re temporarily decreasing the number of recommendations you see in your feed so we can improve the quality of your experience,” a spokesperson for Meta said in a statement released on Thursday (Jul.29).
“We recognize that changes to the app can be an adjustment, and while we believe that Instagram needs to evolve as the world changes, we want to take the time to make sure we get this right,” the statement continued.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri, who, to his credit, has been very transparent with users about changes to the app, also confirmed the company is not going forward with the feature.
“I’m glad we took a risk — if we’re not failing every once in a while, we’re not thinking big enough or bold enough,” Mosseri told Platformer. “But we definitely need to take a big step back and regroup. [When] we’ve learned a lot, then we come back with some sort of new idea or iteration. So we’re going to work through that.”
Video Will Still The Be Main Focus
Despite rolling back the full-screen video feature, Mosseri assured users that photos will still matter on the app. Still, he added the transition to video would continue to be the company’s focus.
“We’re going to continue to support photos, they’re part of our heritage,” Mosseri said in a video on Instagram Tuesday. “That said, I need to be honest: I do believe that more and more of Instagram is going to become video over time.”
Sighs.
We shall see if this rollback on these features will help improve the Instagram experience.
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Photo: SOPA Images / Getty
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