Some of the planned modifications to Instagram’s platform that caused quite a stir on social media in recent days have been scrapped. After announcing that all publicly available videos under 15 minutes in length will become Reels and the feed will go full-screen, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri first said that video was the future of Instagram. Then, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, made the shocking announcement that the proportion of recommended content in Facebook and Instagram feeds will double in 2019.
A full-screen feed’s limited beta testing will come to an end within the next few weeks, according to information provided by Mosseri in an interview with tech journalist Casey Newton. The quantity of recommended posts that currently appear in your home feed will also be decreased by the firm. It’s uncertain if Zuckerberg will follow through on his pledge to investors to increase the amount of algorithmically recommended content in the feed starting in 2019.
Mosseri’s rapid action is still a surprising occurrence, though, and it demonstrates how deeply the top executives at the firm were shaken by the vehement online outcry from Instagram users. The suggested changes that will make Instagram feel more like TikTok have received harsh criticism from everyday users screaming their unhappiness on social media to influential figures supporting the “Make Instagram Instagram Again” movement.
Despite remarkable pushback, video is here to stay
While Mosseri was confident that Instagram will recover, the decision to push less recommended content into users’ feeds was only a temporary measure. Instead, Instagram needs to “take a step back, in terms of the percentage of feed that are recommendations, get better at ranking and recommendations, and then — if and when we do — we can start to grow again.”
However, Mosseri brought up a crucial point regarding the changing Instagram content consumption trends, which, according to internal data, have rapidly shifted more toward video. The expansion of video, according to Mosseri, “predates us leaning more into recommendations and disconnected material.” Mosseri noted that the firm needs to do a better job of outlining the advantages of a change before making such alterations in the context of making fast changes to the main Instagram experience so that customers aren’t left shocked and perplexed.
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Videos seem to be here to stay, but the full-screen feed experience will be consigned to early testing status. Mosseri thinks that Instagram has consistently handled photographs well on the platform. However, given that users are interacting with videos in more and more places on the platform, it must figure out how to improve in that area so that both users and artists have pleasant experiences.
