Say goodbye to at least some of those suggested posts, among other things...
Instagram will walk back some of the recent changes to its product following a week of mounting criticism.
Over the past week, Instagram had been rolling out a test version of the app which opened to full screen videos and photos, in what was a similar look to TikTok.
However, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri told tech newsletter
Platformer that following feedback, the changes would be rolled back.
“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,” Mosseri said.
“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.”
Also, Instagram said it would reduce the amount of recommended posts after users complained about being pushed content from accounts they do not follow.
“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.”
Earlier this week, Mosseri also said while Instagram will continue to be a home for photos, the platform will aim to become more video-focused in the future.
As changes announced are not permanent, it suggests that rather than giving up on creating a more video-heavy platform, Instagram will more than likely seek a better solution than what was implemented this week.
