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Social Networks

Instagram Is Walking Back Its Changes For Now (theverge.com) 27

Posted by BeauHD from the let's-just-all-take-a-deep-breath dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Instagram will walk back some recent changes to the product following a week of mounting criticism, the company said today. A test version of the app that opened to full-screen photos and videos will be phased out over the next one to two weeks, and Instagram will also reduce the number of recommended posts in the app as it works to improve its algorithms. "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," Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said in an interview. "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."

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 away from posting static photos toward watching more video. Redesigns often incur the wrath of users who are hostile to change, but in this case the high-profile dissatisfaction was backed up by Instagram's own internal data, Mosseri said. The trend toward users watching more video is real, and pre-dated the rise of TikTok, he said. But it's clear that people actually do dislike Instagram's design changes. "For the new feed designs, people are frustrated and the usage data isn't great," he said. "So there I think that 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 [on an earnings call (PDF)] that recommended posts and accounts in feeds 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 amount of recommended posts and accounts as it works to improve its personalization tools. (Mosseri wouldn't say by how much, exactly.) "When you discover something in your field that you didn't follow before, there should be a high bar -- it should just be great," Mosseri said. "You should be delighted to see it. And I don't think that's happening enough right now. So I think we need 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." ("I'm confident we will," he added.) Mosseri made clear that the retreat Instagram announced today is not permanent.
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Instagram Is Walking Back Its Changes For Now More

Instagram Is Walking Back Its Changes For Now

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  • *unclutches pearls*

  • > "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,"

    I guess I'm quite big and bold.

  • Full Screen Landscape (Score:3, Insightful)

    by theshowmecanuck ( 703852 ) on Thursday July 28, 2022 @05:31PM (#62742972) Journal

    If they would let you look at stuff full screen in landscape mode by rotating the phone, I think that would be a win. I still use Flickr mostly (sometimes instagram) because if I think a photo is good enough to be worth posting somewhere, people should be able to see it properly. Like not needing a fucking jewelers loupe to see it. At least the Flickr app lets you rotate the phone and you can see a landscape photo full screen. And vertical videos blow chunks. Our eyes are side by side with 180 degree peripheral vision. We're built to look at wider images not taller.

    • The first Android phone - T-Mobile G1 - had this right. The whole phone was landscape by default. With a proper slide-out physical keyboard.

    • Making the client work correctly in desktop browser would be nice too. Having to mess around with emulation mode so you can upload a picture is just stupid.

  • They're really making IG worse and worse, and I'm less and less interested in using it (when it works 'right' for me it's easy to keep up with friends.)

    The Android app is much better for this, here's a tip: watch the top left, after scrolling down a bit you'll see a dropdown appear, select 'Following', and you'll just get the people you follow, and blissfully zero ads. Last time I checked a friends iOS, it wasn't there, so might be no option there.

  • lumbering behemoth (Score:3)

    by awwshit ( 6214476 ) on Thursday July 28, 2022 @05:37PM (#62742988)

    FB is like a lumbering behemoth tripping over its own feet. It will eventually fall over and not be able to get back up.

    • Yup. God forbid they actually listen to their users. They just want to spy on them. I bet they're still mad that they can't do what they used to do because of Cambridge Analytica.

    • FB, like any large company, is like an oil tanker. Slow to change course, and changing course takes an enormous amount of power. On the other hand, it will coast along just fine long after the engine has stopped.

      But getting it moving again once it's stopped takes a lot more power than you're probably willing to put into it.

  • ... there should be a high bar -- it should just be great.

    Social giants make money from tricking their users into longer 'engagement'. Sorting through the dross of human activity for that 1% of inspiration isn't a business plan, so no-one does it. This leaves Instagram in a quandary: How do they grow their user-base without resorting to the same abusive algorithms as Facebook and Twitter?

  • Amusing to see how much power Kim and Kylie wield over the US tech industry.

    Snapchat lost 6% of its value ($1.6B) back in 2018 when Kylie wrote:

    "sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me... ugh this is so sad," she wrote.

    https://www.indy100.com/celebr... [indy100.com]

  • There seems to be an obsession involved here, of attempting to chase the same market that TikTok does - mostly young people.

    Given, that in wealthier countries, the demographics clearly show there's more older people, it makes little sense.

    You end up alienating both camps, by trying to be what you are not.

    Youth and fashion have _always_ been fickle and the Instagram brand is now effectively poison for the young - scorned, laughed at.
    That isn't going to change by trying to make it TikTok - too late.

    The same a

    • The abandonment of Facebook seems to have happened pretty fast. I'm 41, I don't use it much these days but when I do I realise there's barely any people younger than me there.

      • The abandonment of Facebook seems to have happened pretty fast. I'm 41, I don't use it much these days but when I do I realise there's barely any people younger than me there.

        Well, that's the problem right?
        I joined FB because I had friends on it - and some of those _friends_ that found me, or I found them, I realised - I had _nothing_ in common with them.
        In fact, it _ruined_ some old friendships for me, when I found out the views people had, or the total vacuous bullshit they posted.

        You find yourself _trapped_ on this network, because .. your mates are on it.

        Then it becomes a family thing - rather than actually making an effort to go and see them, you just get an update via FB.

        T

  • On Facebook, I always see that "Reels and short videos" section, and I **always** click "Hide". Then it says "You won't see this in your feed anymore". The next time I visit Facebook, it shows me the Reels section again! They don't listen when you tell them you don't want to see it.
  • It's not hostility to "change". People just don't like ads, that's always been the case. Just because something is an advertisement for a different part of your social network, doesn't stop it being an advertisement. If you don't like that word, you could call it spam.

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