Breaking down a simple Product Observation

Did you notice the recent backlash that Instagram was getting for becoming a platform which is bombarding its users with a lot of reels from content creators versus showing them posts/videos from their friends? Followers were calling out Instagram that the main objective of the platform was not being served or had been sidetracked to give content creators more space.

<aside> 💡 The first prototype of Instagram was a web app called Burbn, which was inspired by Systrom's love of fine whiskeys and bourbons.

</aside>

<aside> 💡 From the beginning, the primary focus of the app was to feature photographs, specifically those taken on mobile devices.

</aside>

https://twitter.com/MercyfulKate/status/1534480686538711040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June

Now, that’s a stark contrast from how Instagram started out and what it has become today.

Some more examples of angry and disappointed Twitterati pointing this out -

https://twitter.com/cbaibix/status/1309244806141444100?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September

But, to my surprise, Instagram took notice of this backlash and quickly introduced a “fix”.

Introducing the “Followers and Favorites” Option!

What does this update do?

Favorites shows you the latest from accounts that you choose, like your best friends and favorite creators. In addition to this view, posts from accounts in Favorites will also show up higher in your home feed.

Following shows you posts from the people you follow. Both Favorites and Following will show you posts in chronological order, so you can quickly catch up on recent posts.

scren2.png

New Update by Instagram as on 23rd March, 2022

According to me, this fix is a good example of two things -

  1. The feedback loop - Instagram has listened to its followers and addressed their concerns
  2. Satisfy all stakeholders - The fix has not actually taken over the content creators’ space to give more space to posts from your friends, it has just given you an option to give them separate spaces

The catch here is also two-fold.

If you add content creators in your “Favorites” list (because c'mon, we ARE guilty of LOVING our content creators), they will end up taking up space in your feed more often, as it previously was.

Another catch is that if your friends are not posting as frequently as your content creators, the latter’s content will still be taking up major portion of your feed, since the algorithm is still chronological.