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Facebook has been steadily making Instagram worse since they acquired it, by adding more and more features. Basically, they’re turning it into Facebook, the exi

Facebook has been steadily making Instagram worse since they acquired it, by adding more and more features. Basically, they’re turning it into Facebook, the existing product, because that’s what they know how to do. Currently, users in my Instagram social group are pretty unhappy with the change to a filtered feed, which produces a lack of visibility. This is exactly like the Facebook newsfeed, Where I can post something to my 2000, 500 friends… It gets no likes and no comments, compared to posting in a group with basically the same member where the same content receives plenty of attention, because it was actually displayed to the people who chose to follow me, without me giving Facebook money. There’s not much point in having 8,000 followers if they only show it to 2 percent of them.

product50 8y ago
Yeah - they have made it worse which is why the usage is 20x since the time they acquired it. At least have some logic before randomly typing things.
- code_duck 8y ago
  There are many ways to assess app quality, and there are also many different things to which Instagram’s growth could be ascribed.
  - product50 8y ago
    Yeah - great response without going into details what those things are.
542458 8y ago
> Facebook has been steadily making Instagram worse since they acquired it Define worse, because basically every metric I'm aware of says that instagram is more popular and has higher user engagement than ever. I think your "filtered feed" complaint is something that really ticks off a narrow segment of users, but that the remaining 99% doesn't care about at all. All they notice is a more interesting and relevant feed. Look at it this way - basically every major social network (instagram, twitter, facebook, youtube, etc) has implemented some sort of filtered feed. Every time some small segment of tech-savvy users or power users gets extremely annoyed and complains loudly, but I'm unaware of any network reversing the decision and going back to pure chronological - to me, that says that their internal engagement numbers overwhelmingly justify the decision.
- code_duck 8y ago
  The filter newsfeed complaints are important because they come from content creators. Like I said above, I feel they have made it worse by adding more and more features. They added video, and that was cool. They added messaging, which that was handy. They successfully copied Snapchat, and that was a plus, I guess. They added a location map, OK. Tagging people’s faces in photos... live video with endless notifications... and now IGTV, which is heavily promoted despite being very different than the original app. It’s definitely what I would call feature and mission creep. My opinion is that Instagram was good and successful in the first place because it simple, like Twitter. It appears to me their intention is to replace the old Facebook product with Instagram, probably because younger people don’t use Facebook much. I would guess this is partially because FB is so cluttered and full of unnecessary and annoying features. That’s the direction I see the Instagram app heading in, which is not what their audience wants.
  - tobtoh 8y ago
    Facebook (the company) feels like a one trick pony. They don't seem to able to tailor their products to focus on the unique aspects that make them attractive to their users. Instead, everything collapses to a common feature set.
  - nightski 8y ago
    Most content creators I follow primarily use stories, not the feed.
    - code_duck 8y ago
      That’s part of the problem. Instagram has changed into a completely different app from when I signed up for five years ago. It used to be posting photos, which I still want to do, but most of the focus is on this supposedly off-the-cuff video, which is almost never done off-the-cuff like the app UI encourages.
- code_duck 8y ago
  I want to add that the point isn’t that the feed is filtered, it’s that Facebook does it poorly. Apparently it is designed to suit their needs, not those of users. More than power users are turned off by this, because it’s not a reaction to being aware that the newsfeed is filtered (though I have seen references to ‘the algo’), it’s the effects. When I repeatedly post on my FB wall and receive no interaction, I stop posting. When my FB newsfeed is full of annoying political topics, though I unfollowed the last 20 people who posted about annoying political topics, it’s boring and frustrating to read it, so I stop. Then, when I go to the pages of actual friends and family members whose content I care about, and find they have posted things that have not been displayed to me while days of annoying political topics have been, it’s obvious that something isn’t working right.
bgun 8y ago
Disagree. Replicating Snapchat's "Stories" feature was one of the best value-adds to the platform since Instagram was built.
- code_duck 8y ago
  Sure, duplicating a competitors successful app and combining it with Instagram made Instagram more substantial, and was well received. Not surprising since Snapchat already proved that the system worked. Addding Stories also changed the focus of the app significantly. As a small business, artist and user, I don’t consider it better, just different. I’m not your typical video consumer though.

product50 8y ago

Yeah - they have made it worse which is why the usage is 20x since the time they acquired it. At least have some logic before randomly typing things.

code_duck 8y ago
There are many ways to assess app quality, and there are also many different things to which Instagram’s growth could be ascribed.
- product50 8y ago
  Yeah - great response without going into details what those things are.

542458 8y ago

> Facebook has been steadily making Instagram worse since they acquired it Define worse, because basically every metric I'm aware of says that instagram is more popular and has higher user engagement than ever. I think your "filtered feed" complaint is something that really ticks off a narrow segment of users, but that the remaining 99% doesn't care about at all. All they notice is a more interesting and relevant feed. Look at it this way - basically every major social network (instagram, twitter, facebook, youtube, etc) has implemented some sort of filtered feed. Every time some small segment of tech-savvy users or power users gets extremely annoyed and complains loudly, but I'm unaware of any network reversing the decision and going back to pure chronological - to me, that says that their internal engagement numbers overwhelmingly justify the decision.

code_duck 8y ago
The filter newsfeed complaints are important because they come from content creators. Like I said above, I feel they have made it worse by adding more and more features. They added video, and that was cool. They added messaging, which that was handy. They successfully copied Snapchat, and that was a plus, I guess. They added a location map, OK. Tagging people’s faces in photos... live video with endless notifications... and now IGTV, which is heavily promoted despite being very different than the original app. It’s definitely what I would call feature and mission creep. My opinion is that Instagram was good and successful in the first place because it simple, like Twitter. It appears to me their intention is to replace the old Facebook product with Instagram, probably because younger people don’t use Facebook much. I would guess this is partially because FB is so cluttered and full of unnecessary and annoying features. That’s the direction I see the Instagram app heading in, which is not what their audience wants.
- tobtoh 8y ago
  Facebook (the company) feels like a one trick pony. They don't seem to able to tailor their products to focus on the unique aspects that make them attractive to their users. Instead, everything collapses to a common feature set.
- nightski 8y ago
  Most content creators I follow primarily use stories, not the feed.
  - code_duck 8y ago
    That’s part of the problem. Instagram has changed into a completely different app from when I signed up for five years ago. It used to be posting photos, which I still want to do, but most of the focus is on this supposedly off-the-cuff video, which is almost never done off-the-cuff like the app UI encourages.
code_duck 8y ago
I want to add that the point isn’t that the feed is filtered, it’s that Facebook does it poorly. Apparently it is designed to suit their needs, not those of users. More than power users are turned off by this, because it’s not a reaction to being aware that the newsfeed is filtered (though I have seen references to ‘the algo’), it’s the effects. When I repeatedly post on my FB wall and receive no interaction, I stop posting. When my FB newsfeed is full of annoying political topics, though I unfollowed the last 20 people who posted about annoying political topics, it’s boring and frustrating to read it, so I stop. Then, when I go to the pages of actual friends and family members whose content I care about, and find they have posted things that have not been displayed to me while days of annoying political topics have been, it’s obvious that something isn’t working right.

bgun 8y ago

Disagree. Replicating Snapchat's "Stories" feature was one of the best value-adds to the platform since Instagram was built.

code_duck 8y ago
Sure, duplicating a competitors successful app and combining it with Instagram made Instagram more substantial, and was well received. Not surprising since Snapchat already proved that the system worked. Addding Stories also changed the focus of the app significantly. As a small business, artist and user, I don’t consider it better, just different. I’m not your typical video consumer though.