After a significant response from users, Instagram is backing away from some important changes. Last month, Instagram began testing a full-screen display of photos and videos. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri told Platformer that testing will be phased out in the next couple of weeks. “For the new feed designs, people are frustrated and the usage data isn’t great,” Mosseri said. “So there I think that we need to take a big step back, regroup and figure out how we want to move forward.”
In addition, the app will reduce the level of recommended content you see. However, this will be done temporarily. “When you discover something in your field that you didn’t follow before, there should be a high bar — it should just be great,” he said. “You should be delighted to see it. And I don’t think that’s happening enough right now.”
Mosseri said on Tuesday that the full-screen design is “not yet good” and needs tweaking before Instagram releases it to everyone. However, he noted that over time Instagram will become more video-centric since that’s the kind of content people are sharing these days.
Mosseri also wanted to justify the prevalence of recommended posts on the app. He noted that they’re important to help authors build their audience-whether you’re interested in seeing their content in your feed or Stories. You have the option to turn off all recommendations for a month, he noted.
Instagram introduced a full-screen feed and more recommended posts to compete with TikTok. People’s time spent watching videos rose 30 percent last quarter, and Mosseri said the gradual adoption of video by users is a “paradigm shift that we’ve seen for many, many years now.”
Many people, however, rebelled against the change to full-screen mode. Famous users such as Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian this week called on Meta to “Make Instagram Instagram again.”
Mosseri also noted that Instagram data showed that users disagreed with the change, a key reason the company is changing course. Still, the return to a full-screen feed and recommendations won’t be permanent. Mosseri said he’s confident Instagram will improve its ranking and recommendation algorithms to “start to grow again” after this step back.
