Instagram responds to criticism with shocking revelation that it will ‘continue to support photos’ – TechCrunch

Instagram head Adam Mosseri posted a video this morning addressing growing concerns about the changes to the app’s feed and its growing focus on video. Even Kim Kardashian and her sister Kylie Jenner, the most followed woman on Instagram, post their distaste for new features, so you know it’s serious – remember when Kylie one hand pushing Snap stock down because she said she doesn’t open the app anymore?

It’s no secret that over the past year and a half, Instagram has pursued TikTok’s dominance, to the point where it claims that No longer just a photo sharing app. The platform even gives influencers temptation bonus if they’re successful enough, exploit The meager payout to TikTok’s creators.

But you may have noticed that your Instagram feed kind of currency recently. Everything is one rollthere is a test about a full screen feed which some people really like and some meme creators even conduct a live demonstration over the weekend at Meta’s New York City Headquarters (… which happens to share a building with Yahoo, our parent company).

So all things considered, Mosseri had to post a reel of her own to clear the air around some of these trials and changes.

“We’re testing a number of different changes to the app, and so we’re hearing a lot of concerns from all of you,” said Mosseri (whether he’s more worried about those changes). meme creator protest or Kardashians displeasure? Who can say!).

Mosseri affirms what we already know – that the controversial full-screen feed is just a test for a small percentage of users – but he thinks the new look isn’t really…ideal.

“I want to be clear, it’s still not good. And we’re going to have to get it to a good place if we’re going to send it to the rest of the Instagram community,” Mosseri said.

He then addresses users’ concerns about seeing fewer and fewer photos on an app that was once the home of photographers. The image, which both Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner shared, reads: “Reinventing Instagram for Instagram,” with parentheses adding: “Stop trying to be TikTok, I just want to see your cute pictures. my friends”. Combined, the two super famous sisters have around 686 million followers on Instagram.

Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian post protesting Instagram changes

“I want to be clear: we will continue to support photos. It’s part of our heritage,” said Mosseri, insisting that he also loves the photos. “That said, I need to be honest: I believe more and more Instagram will become video over time. We see this even if we don’t change anything. We see this even if you just look at the chronological feed.”

These claims are a bit questionable, though, as it means Instagram users will post more videos when they’re encouraged to do so, and they’ll engage more with videos when they’re primarily watching videos on the feed. their data.

“If you look at what people share on Instagram, that’s turning to more video over time,” says Mosseri. “If you look at what people like, consume and watch on Instagram, that also translates more and more to video over time, even if we stop charging anything.”

inside petition that the Kardashians shared (admittedly a bit hard to access, since both Kim and Kylie posted screenshots of other people’s stories) has more to offer than just bringing in more photos.

Tati BrueningThe fashion photographer behind the petition, is also campaigning for Instagram to listen to creators more transparently.

Bruening writes in the petition: “It is a mistake to transform the algorithm for creators who make a living and contribute to the community, forcing them to change their entire content direction and lifestyle in order to cater to the needs of the community. service a new algorithm.

Users have also been frustrated with the amount of “recommendations” on their feeds, which is how Instagram delivers content to you from accounts you don’t follow. In short, it looks like Instagram is trying to replicate the success of the TikTok For You Page.

“If you see things in your feed that are recommendations you’re not interested in, it means we’re rating the job badly and we need to improve,” Mosseri said. “You can X out a proposal, you can even snooze all proposals for up to a month, or access your feed later.”

However, the head of Instagram says these recommendations will continue to appear in the feed as he believes this is the best way to help creators reach more people, especially creators. make smaller.

Several Instagram users criticized Mosseri’s message, including Dr. Carolina Are, an online censorship researcher and pole dancer who has authored academic articles about Instagram’s algorithm.

Dr Are, who uses the @bloggeronpole handle commented: “Despite what you say, it really doesn’t feel like you have creators, especially small creators,” said Dr. user handle @bloggeronpole. “People create the reels because it seems to be the only thing that gets engagement – ​​but they require a lot of work. Because of IG’s lack of transparency, creators are trying to track your changes on a system that doesn’t seem to be for them.”

Dr Are, as well as the meme creators who protested this weekend, are also concerned about the extremely shady system behind “shadowbanning” or when a creator suspects their content has been stripped by an algorithm. ownership for reasons they don’t know. For example, Dr. Are pioneered research on the effect of shading on pole dancers. But for the most part, social networking platforms refuse shading casesputs the creator in a difficult situation (also, Meta owns license of invention on practice).

Mosseri says: Don’t worry about all the considerations! You can still post photos on Instagram. Edema.