Instagram to Pull Back Recent Changes Following User Backlash
The Internet was not happy with full-screen feeds and recommended posts.
After a surge of Internet backlash from users, Instagram has now announced that it’ll be dialing back on some of the recent changes it has made to the social media platform, including full-screen feeds and recommended posts. Full-screen feeds were originally being tested last month for select users, but Instagram head Adam Mosseri now says that “people are frustrated and the usage data isn’t great,” so the app will be removing that layout for now.
As for recommended posts, Mosseri admits that currently the algorithms aren’t ideal and so the number of posts you see in that category will be reduced, at least temporarily. “When you discover something in your field that you didn’t follow before, there should be a high bar — it should just be great,” he remarked. “You should be delighted to see it. And I don’t think that’s happening enough right now.”
The latest change in direction comes just days after Mosseri himself acknowledged the dissatisfaction from Instagrams users via a video posted on Twitter, where he reassured users the platform will continue supporting photos but that a shift to video is inevitable. “I need to be honest: I do believe that more and more of Instagram is going to become video over time,” he explained. “We see this even if we do nothing…So we’re gonna have to lean into that shift.”
While the company is dialing back the changes it has recently made, it’s also clear that they won’t be gone permanently. Mosseri says that the team hopes to improve the overall user experience with recommendation algorithms and full-screen feeds so that those features can “start to grow again” after some time.
In other related news, Facebook will pay you to use Post Malone’s music in your videos.
