Instagram will roll back some recent changes made to its platform, following a week of mounting criticism, the company said recently.
A test version of the app that opened to full-screen photos and videos will be phased out over the next two weeks, and Instagram will also reduce the number of recommended posts in the app as it works to improve its algorithms.
failure is not your enemy
“I’m glad we took the risk. If we don’t fail from time to time, it’s because we don’t think big or bold enough,” Instagram boss Adam Mosseri said in an interview.
“But we definitely need to take a big step back and regroup. [Cuando] we’ve learned a lot, we come back with some sort of new idea or iteration. So we’re going to work on that.”
The changes come amid growing user frustration over a series of changes to Instagram designed to help it better compete with TikTok and navigate the broader shift in user behavior from posting static photos to watching more videos.
On Monday, reality TV star and businesswoman Kylie Jenner, along with her sister Kim Kardashian, posted memes asking the company to “make Instagram Instagram again.” And on Twitter, almost every day, people have posted tweets criticizing the new Instagram that quickly go viral.
High-profile dissatisfaction
Redesigns often draw the ire of users who are hostile to the change, but in this case the high-profile dissatisfaction was backed up by Instagram’s own internal data, Mosseri said.
The trend of users watching more videos is real and predates the rise of TikTok, he said. But it’s clear that people don’t really like Instagram’s design changes.
“For new power designs, people are frustrated and the usage data is not good,” he said. “So I think we need to take a big step back, regroup and figure out how we want to move forward.”
The company also plans to show users fewer recommendations. On Wednesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that recommended posts and accounts in the news feed currently account for about 15 percent of what you see when you browse Facebook, and an even higher percentage on Instagram. By the end of 2023, that figure will be around 30 percent, Zuckerberg said.
But Instagram will temporarily reduce the number of recommended posts and accounts as it works to improve its personalization tools.
Step back is not permanent
Mosseri clarified that the step back on Instagram is not permanent. Threats to the company’s dominance continue to mount: TikTok is the world’s most downloaded app, the most popular website, and the most viewed video company.
Meanwhile, Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature has blown a $10 billion hole in Meta’s core ad business, with Meta reporting its first quarterly revenue decline on Wednesday. Zuckerberg has taken a war footing and promised that many more changes are on the way.
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