What you need to know
- Instagram is rushing to bring back recent changes to its app amid backlash.
- Celebrities and popular users alike are expressing their disapproval of the full-screen home feed and increased recommended posts.
- Instagram head Adam Mosseri said the removal will be temporary as the company looks to improve the way it will integrate it in the future.
Instagram is looking to roll back some changes after the platform faced criticism following user controversies.
The backlash came after Instagram began testing a new full-screen view of its home page feed. The platform has also increased the number of recommended posts on the app as well as its focus on videos. However, all of these changes felt forced, and users clearly didn’t enjoy them. according to CurriculumInstagram is set to roll back these changes over the next two weeks with improvements to the algorithm.
In an interview with Platformer, Instagram Head Adam Mosseri said, “I’m glad we took a risk – if we don’t fail now and then we don’t think big or bold enough. But we definitely need to take a big step back and regroup. When we learned A lot, we come back with some kind of new idea or iteration. So we’ll work through that.”
The new changes were very similar to TikTok, as the video platform is one of Instagram’s biggest competitors as it looks to attract and retain new and existing users. With that said, Instagram’s changes prompted more video viewing over photo viewing. The latest wave of criticism emerged after well-known celebrities Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian became vocal about recent changes to the platform. Their disapproval, the Platformer states, extended to Twitter, as people’s disagreement with Instagram grew.
Alex Mosseri continued on the topic of suggested posts, saying, “You should be happy to see it. I don’t think it’s happening enough now. So I think we need to step back, in terms of the percentage of the feed that are recommendations, improve rankings and recommendations, and then – If and when we do that – we can start growing again.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that these types of recommended posts account for about 15% of content on Facebook and more on Instagram (via the edge). He then said that those numbers could rise to 30% by 2023. However, this is something Instagram users don’t really get along with and the reason why Adam Mosseri is looking to reduce the amount of recommended content people see right now.
Instagram Reels is something the company mentioned on their Meta earnings call as a focus. Instagram Reels is another way the platform is slowly trying to switch to TikTok, as the company aims to convert all videos posted on the platform to Reels.
However, until these changes come to light, users can breathe a sigh of relief as Instagram takes a step back and continues to look for better ways to improve how these new changes will be implemented in the future.