Meta reverses and freezes part of the changes to "tiktokizar" Instagram

After much criticism, Meta has decided to take a step back from its plan to “tiktokize” Instagram. The second most important social network of the American conglomerate had begun to implement a series of changes to be more like TikTok, the short video application of the Chinese giant ByteDance that experiencing staggering global growth.

However, the opinion of users has been more important than internal analysis of the company, which Instagram boss Adam Mosseri said was supportive of the changes they were pushing. Now, some functions are paralyzed, but they could be reactivated in the future. Let’s see what this movement is about and why later we could have news again.

Instagram will no longer be tiktokized (more or less)

We already explained it a few hours ago. Everyone wants to be TikTok, and the reasons seem obvious: it’s where users want to be, and more users more chances to develop the advertising business that is the core of the technology companies that run social networks. Thus, as he had done on many other occasions, Mark Zuckerberg thought of changing to look like his rival.

Facebook, which for years had championed connections between family and friends, debuted a home feed with more external content, including Reels. Instagram began to move away from photos and began to show more videos. The commitment to videos has been such that, with a few exceptions, all videos uploaded to the platform will be converted to Reels and may be used by other users as a basis for creating other Reels.

In addition, the company began testing a “more immersive” experience on Instagram. The contents that were shown in the home feed were shown in full screen, in the best TikTok style, although the bottom navigation bar did not disappear. This latest change seems to have been the last reason for users, including the famous Americans Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner who are among the most followed on the platformexpress their dissatisfaction with the company.

In response to this scenario, Mosseri said this Thursday in a interview with Casey Newton that will cripple the full screen home feed test, but not with immediate effect, but within the next few weeks. Likewise, will limit the amount of suggested content that appear on the social network. In this sense, the executive assures, that they will work to improve their algorithms. “I’m glad we took a chance, if we’re not failing from time to time, we’re not thinking big enough or bold enough,” he said.

But this movement might not last for long. According to Mosseri himself, the intention of the social network is “to take a big step back and regroup.” Thus, he says that they will come back with new ideas or an iteration after this learning. “We’re going to work on it,” he assured. We do not know what that iteration could be like, although taking into account the current scenario it could also have a TikTok flavor.

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