Seeing only reels on Instagram? Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner are, and they're furious
Instagram (L) and Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner (R). Photo: Unsplash and Getty Images
If you are one of Instagram’s (un)lucky users, you may have seen the new full-screen version of videos on the photo-sharing app and you might have thought, ‘wait, am I on TikTok now?’ or ‘where did the pictures go!?’.
Well, the most-followed woman on Instagram, Kylie Jenner, agrees with you. On July 26, she re-shared a post on her Instagram stories that read, “Stop trying to be TikTok. I just want to see cute pictures of my friends. Sincerely, everyone.”
Originally posted by @illumitati, the post currently has nearly 2 million likes.
Her sister, Kim Kardashian, is also not liking the new Instagram feed ‘test’ and re-shared the post on her Instagram stories.
What is Instagram saying: Fret not as the Head of Meta’s Instagram, Adam Mosseri heard the users and Kardashian-Jenner complaining, and released a video about the new format.
Addressing the concerns, Mosseri said, “If you’re seeing a new, full-screen version of a feed or you’re hearing about it, know that this is a test. It’s a test to a few percentage of people out there, and the idea is that a more full-screen experience, not only for video but for photos, might be a bit more fun and engaging experience. But I also want to be clear, it’s not yet good.”
Hear him here:
In his video, he also addressed concerns about the higher visibility of videos on Instagram, rather than photos; and rising Instagram recommendations on the user’s feed.
Mosseri explained that Instagram would continue to support photos as they are Instagram’s ‘heritage’, but focus would now be more on videos since Instagram creators are now moving toward videos .
Another concern that Moseeri talked about is the account recommendations that users see on their main feed. He explained that the intention behind doing this is so that users are able to discover new creators who are similar to their interests.
But viewers aren’t happy with his explanation. One user wrote, “There’s one thing helping creators to reach more people, but we’re not actually being shown to them when they follow us or the people who’ve been following us for a while.”
Another user wrote, “I rely heavily on IG for my biz and worry these changes keep ruining the app. Creators are making videos because we feel FORCED to- because videos are clearly prioritised.”
One user wrote in Mosseri’s Instagram comment section that he simply wanted the old Instagram format back. “Bring back the old design, this is just impossible to use. And while there, can you please bring back the engagement and the possibilty for people who follow us to actually see our posts," he wrote.
Facebook too: Instagram isn’t the only Meta product going through a TikTok-style change. Recently, Facebook has also had some new TikTok-styled redesign.
In July 2022, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that when users now log in into Facebook, they will be taken to a Home tab where a new ‘discovery engine’ will show them content that Facebook’s algorithm thinks the user would be interested in.
Users will also be able to look at chronologically ordered posts from their Facebook friends, a feature that Facebook initially started off with but buried along the way.