After the photo and reel sharing social media platform Instagram introduced several updates, company head Adam Mosseri posted a video on Tuesday to address “a lot of concerns” about the app and its future plans.
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Many users have complained about Instagram’s algorithmic focus on video clips by creators rather than photos posted by their family and friends. This became a major trend after American TV and fashion celebrities Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian shared a graphic on Monday that declared “Make Instagram Instagram again.”
However, Mr. Mosseri stressed on the need for the app and its users to “evolve” with a changing world.
“I know a lot of you out there love photos. That said, I need to be honest. I do believe that more and more of Instagram is going to become video over time. We see this even if we change nothing,” Mr. Mosseri stated in the video.
He assured users that Instagram would continue to support photos, but that people were liking, viewing, and sharing more videos.
The Instagram head also took users through some other changes, including a limited test of a full-screen feed, and enhanced recommendations from accounts which users were not following. Mr. Mosseri said users could snooze recommendations for up to a month. Still, the company’s efforts to rank the media recommendations for users would go on.
“But we need to continue to try and get better at recommendations [be]cause we think it’s one of the most competitive and important ways to help creators reach more people,” he said in the video.
However, many Instagram users are upset with the way the platform is trying to compete with TikTok by shifting to a model based on creating videos rather than photos.
A petition launched by artist Tati Bruening - who posted the viral graphic shared by the Kardashians - had over 180,000 signatures at the time of writing.
“We have TikTok for a reason, and let’s face it, the only reels uploaded are recycled TikToks and content that the world has already seen. What’s innovative and unique about old stale content? Nothing!” stated Ms. Bruening’s petition.
Her graphic had close to two million likes at the time of writing.
Many users echoed her call for chronological timelines and an algorithm that prioritised photos over videos.
As TikTok’s developer is Chinese, it has been banned in India since June 29 2020, following a violent clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers near the international border. Instagram reels are one way by which Indian users can legally access TikTok videos which are otherwise blocked.
Instagram’s parent company Meta has seen its stock fall by 4.50% in the past day, and plunge by 45.98% in the past six months. The company is expected to release its Q2 results on Wednesday amidst soaring inflation and fears of a recession.
