Instagram has decided to reverse some changes after it got serious backlash from its users.
What Changes Has Instagram Reversed?
Royalty influencers Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian have accused Instagram of mimicking TikTok at the expense of its most loyal users.
If you are a regular user of Instagram like myself, you have probably got irritated by the new feed. The platform is offering more videos instead of the regular balanced images and videos.
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After some viral anger from Kardashian followers, Instagram said on Thursday it was rolling back some of the changes. This includes a test version of the app that gave a full-screen display to posts. According to Instagram, the rollback will also reduce changes to its algorithm. Besides feeding users’ interface with more videos, the content has been biased toward accounts they don’t follow.
Adam Mosseri, the Instagram head said, “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. 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.”
Instagram has more than 1 billion users monthly and they couldn’t afford to lose the sweet spot.
How Kim Kardashian And Kylie Jenner Made Instagram Instagram Again
Kylie Jenner is the third most followed Instagram user with 361 million followers. She joined with her sister Kim Kardashian, with the 7th most followed Instagram account (about 326 million). The two shared a meme that demanded “Make Instagram Instagram Again.” The meme meme read:
“Make Instagram Instagram again. Stop trying to be tiktok i just want to see cute photos of my friends.”
Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner
More and more people had complained about receiving unwanted videos on the platform. They want to see pictures of their loved ones instead of funny videos. Mr Mosseri had earlier said that Instagram was about to become a purely video platform.
However, after the backlash, Instagram is apparently going to reverse the changes. “We have gone too far!”, exclaimed Mr Mosseri.
Where Did This Start?
The emergency of TikTok in September 2016 marked the beginning of a new social media wave. While Facebook had become popular, they had stuck to imagery feed for a while. We saw other platforms like Likee but they didn’t standout for so long. Fast forward, in 2022, TikTok is the most famous social media platform in the world.
Their volcanic success has caused other platforms to parrot the tiktok style of news feed. YouTube introduced Shorts, while Facebook and Instagram created Reels. These have been possible by the integration of vertical video playback on mobile devices.
