Instagram rolling BACK TikTok-style video feed and recommendations! Here is why

Instagram got a lot of flak a couple of weeks after it introduced a couple of changes to the timeline. Instagram introduced the fullscreen TikTok-style view for photos and videos, both of which were not received well. Hence, Adam Mosseri, the Instagram Chief, now says in an interview to The Verge that the company is rolling back these changes and restoring to the original style. Additionally, it is also doing something about the video recommendations feature on its algorithms.

“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,” said Mosseri. “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,” he added.

Instagram to lose TikTok-style feed

“For the new feed designs, people are frustrated and the usage data isn’t great. So there I think that we need to take a big step back, regroup, and figure out how we want to move forward,” added Mosseri.

The correction at a time when popular celebrities have been trolling the platform for trying to make Instagram something else. TV Star Kyle Jenner along with her sister Kim Kardashian made memes on “making Instagram Instagram again”. 

Additionally, he said that Instagram is also reducing the amount of recommended posts for a brief time. In the meantime, the app will improve its personalisation tools.

“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, get better at ranking and recommendations, and then — if and when we do — we can start to grow again.”