“Make Instagram Instagram again” Instagram accused of copying TikTok’s interface
There is no secret that over the last year, Instagram has been chasing the dominance of TikTok, but is cloning their competitor the way to go?
You might have noticed how your Instagram feed sucks lately, showing as much algorithmically targeted video content as possible and juicing engagement wherever practical. Everything seems to be a reel these days.
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, posted a video recently addressing changes to the app’s feed and its increasing emphasis on video.
TikTok inspires the new user interface (UI) of Instagram. This is not the first time Instagram has routinely been “inspired” by its more innovative rivals; remember when they clone-stamped Stories out of Snapchat? With the new interface, Instagram took the opportunity to bring in a few bad habits and troubling choices from TikTok, all pretty clearly intended to control their metrics and force users to interact with content on the app’s terms.
The new UI removes the top stories bar at the top of the feed, a feature that has become synonymous with the app. It now presents everything in an immersive, full-screen, swipeable UI. The experimental feed would include regular feed posts, stories and reels, all within a single flow, highly reminiscent of TikTok.
You can no longer mute reels; if you want Instagram to be silent, you must set your entire phone on silent. Tapping on them only pauses and unpauses it.
This has significance when it comes to Instagram ads. You can no longer zoom past an ad; it will now take up your full display until you touch the screen to dismiss it, making it impossible to miss it.
What Instagram is doing here is that by the time you pay attention to figuring out what the post is, ad or not, the hook is already set. You have viewed the content long enough to inflate some arcane eyeball metric.
Before, it would say “Suggested for you” or something at the top, so you knew from the get-go that this wasn’t your friend’s account but an unseen creator trying to build an audience. Now you see the content first, then the little indicator that you have never met this account in your life. In a nutshell, it seems like Instagram is trying to recreate the success of the TikTok For You Page.
Adam Mosseri said that these “recommendations” would continue to appear since he believes this is the best way to help creators reach more people, especially smaller creators.
Fortunately, you can still go in the dot menu to “snooze” suggested posts for 30 days.
A lot of influencers have expressed their distaste for the new features. Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, the two most-followed women on Instagram, even reposted a story saying, “make Instagram Instagram again”, claiming the platform has lost its identity. Also, dozens of creators and their followers gathered outside Instagram’s New York City headquarters to protest against the platform’s content moderations.
Another UI update is that when you reach the end of your organic content, the bottom half of the screen is the top half of an algorithmic post. This makes it hard to believe Instagram’s “taking a break” claim when you are all caught up on your followings. They want you to continue, which is why “view older posts” is tiny and the default action is “watch algorithmically generated content.”
This pushes Instagram closer to TikTok and generally tightens control over the user experience. The new interface is being tested with a limited number of users, but it isn't clear how many or when the change will roll out to everyone.
Understandably, the Instagram product team thinks mimicking whatever app is more popular than theirs at the moment is the way to survive. Still, the patterns they’ve adopted here are detrimental to the Instagram experience that users know and enjoy.
