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As a millennial I can tell you exactly why TikTok is better: 1. The Reels algorithm is simplistic as fuck. I was scrolling through Instagram recently and a thr

As a millennial I can tell you exactly why TikTok is better: 1. The Reels algorithm is simplistic as fuck. I was scrolling through Instagram recently and a three reel “ad” came up. I accidentally tapped on the center one and it turned out to be a pimple popping video. Now every reel I see is that. No exceptions. I am sure if I actually watched more Reels I would get better content but that’s work. 2. Reels are often poor quality. What I see is mostly life hacks that are actually really stupid or jokes that never pay off. 3. TikTok has a creator culture that seems far superior to Reels. What Facebook/Instagram seem to fail to realize is that the problem they have isn’t a lack of a video platform but rather a lack culture. TikTok somehow did foster a really cool culture of people creating content, perhaps using their stitches feature. 4. Instagram is a photo sharing platform. Imagine if every other thing you saw on TikTok was a still photo. It would be jarring. That’s the current experience with reels. 5. I don’t know if this is actually true but it feels to me that you can get a lot more exposure quickly on TikTok than with Reels. I don’t post TikTok videos but know enough people who do and it seems they are very much able to get tens of thousands of views with minimal effort and while being relatively new to the platform. I don’t think you can get those numbers with Reels. 6. TikTok nailed ads. They are obvious, easy to skip, and not jarring at all. Instagram is a mess. 7. I come to Instagram to seek specific kind of content from my friends. I get reels from total strangers. I come to TikTok to get lols from random strangers and sometimes see friends. This is very personal but this is a major reason for me to use both and to dislike Reels.

fucyfdjrgg 4y ago
I agree with all of this and I think the only thing I would add is that Tiktok understood the assignment was to be a mobile app. Everything about Tiktok is streamlined for mobile from the menus, to the time allotments, to a myriad of other design choices. Mobile is the future and, while I don't mean this to be snide towards pc enthusiasts, I find that a lot of people in my generation (millenials) and farther back just cannot comprehend how enjoyable a well designed mobile experience can be because they're stuck in old mindsets and habits. But Gen Z is growing up with phones that don't suck in their hands and the status quo of 'good enough' mobile apps is eventually going to be subverted by apps like TikTok imo that actually embrace mobile as a valid primary medium and not just as a lucrative lowest-common-denominator market.
usrusr 4y ago
> 6. TikTok nailed ads. They are obvious, easy to skip, and not jarring at all. Instagram is a mess. Did they really nail ads or could it perhaps just be that they still consider themselves in a growth phase (perhaps depending on market) where they deliberately try to not use them as hard as they think they could?
- mistermann 4y ago
  A lot of the TikTok users that I follow are now getting sponsored to do ads as part of their regular content, and I will typically watch it because I am interested in the person and therefore interested in how they execute an advertisement. Win/win/win.
saurik 4y ago
> 1. The Reels algorithm is simplistic as fuck. I was scrolling through Instagram recently and a three reel “ad” came up. I accidentally tapped on the center one and it turned out to be a pimple popping video. Now every reel I see is that. No exceptions. I am sure if I actually watched more Reels I would get better content but that’s work. OMG this... a million times this :/. YouTube has similar issues--where you watch one video from some sitcom or cartoon not because it was from that particular show but because it happened to be about something interesting and suddenly YouTube is SURE you LOVE that show and want EVERYTHING IT HAS about that show--but it isn't quite so bad as Instagram, where I've heard a ton of stories about ending up pigeonholed by its algorithm into something they have a phobia for or past trauma related to, and now they are afraid to use the app, because it really does feel like you click on one pimple popping video (which has come up as the SPECIFIC issue for MULTIPLE people I've talked to, INCLUDING MYSELF a while ago) and BAM the app is now nothing but pimples being popped, 24/7.
- oefrha 4y ago
  I’ve always wondered why they are so bad at learning such an obvious lesson from their supposed biggest threat. TikTok seems to always mix it up; even if you do actually want to watch pimple popping 24/7, they seem to throw in some totally unrelated thing once in a while. Turns out people easily find things they didn’t even know they would enjoy this way, and when they have many interests, their feeds are way more engaging. What’s so hard about randomizing 10-20% of the time?
  - solarkraft 4y ago
    It's probably really easy, it's just crazy that they don't seem to want to. I could imagine them chasing the local maximum.
  - soco 4y ago
    TikTok seems the only one who actually put thought about it, because that's exactly the beef I have with Spotify as well. You play a "song radio" and find a new song so you move to that other song radio but only to get exactly the same list maybe shuffled a bit. Somehow they create bubbles of content and that's it, no way out. At least on Spotify you can change bubbles, while on YouTube good luck.
hellweaver666 4y ago
> Reels are often poor quality. What I see is mostly life hacks that are actually really stupid or jokes that never pay off I keep seeing obviously reposted popular tiktok videos. The same ones, over and over again but with different accounts. Same on YouTube shorts.
conradfr 4y ago
> I don’t think you can get those numbers with Reels. Can you even watch a reel without an account? Because I know I can't watch stories and after clicking one or two pictures my IP is blocked entirely from Instagram for x hours. I don't have this problem if someone sends me a TikTok link.
sanxiyn 4y ago
> I am sure if I actually watched more Reels I would get better content but that's work. Yes, you in fact get better recommendation as you use it more. Reading HN, sometimes it feels like I must be the only one in the world enjoying good recommendations from both YouTube and Instagram. I do have many thousands of watches and likes on YouTube and Instagram, but it didn't feel like work, because I accumulated them over years of use.
mns 4y ago
1. Is on point. I’m just a hobby photographer and follow some people for inspiration. I clicked on a comic from the discover page at one point and after that all the recommendations were just random Reddit like comics and posts. Same was when I randomly saw a picture of a tattoo and after that I only had tattoo pictures and reels in the discover section. It’s insane how bad it is.
user_named 4y ago
5. You can get a lot of exposure on tiktok whereas on Instagram they intentionally lower your organic exposure down to where it's now 1% or so of people who follow you who actually see your posts. Of course people are not going to post on Instagram then.
jareklupinski 4y ago
> a lack culture. TikTok somehow did foster a really cool culture of people creating content they were the only place you could post and share a video of yourself dancing / lip-syncing along to licensed music without getting DMCA'd
UncleMeat 4y ago
I agree with all of this except for TikTok ads being obvious. To me, it is not at all obvious which ones have the little "sponsored" at the bottom.

fucyfdjrgg 4y ago

I agree with all of this and I think the only thing I would add is that Tiktok understood the assignment was to be a mobile app. Everything about Tiktok is streamlined for mobile from the menus, to the time allotments, to a myriad of other design choices. Mobile is the future and, while I don't mean this to be snide towards pc enthusiasts, I find that a lot of people in my generation (millenials) and farther back just cannot comprehend how enjoyable a well designed mobile experience can be because they're stuck in old mindsets and habits. But Gen Z is growing up with phones that don't suck in their hands and the status quo of 'good enough' mobile apps is eventually going to be subverted by apps like TikTok imo that actually embrace mobile as a valid primary medium and not just as a lucrative lowest-common-denominator market.

usrusr 4y ago

> 6. TikTok nailed ads. They are obvious, easy to skip, and not jarring at all. Instagram is a mess. Did they really nail ads or could it perhaps just be that they still consider themselves in a growth phase (perhaps depending on market) where they deliberately try to not use them as hard as they think they could?

mistermann 4y ago
A lot of the TikTok users that I follow are now getting sponsored to do ads as part of their regular content, and I will typically watch it because I am interested in the person and therefore interested in how they execute an advertisement. Win/win/win.

saurik 4y ago

> 1. The Reels algorithm is simplistic as fuck. I was scrolling through Instagram recently and a three reel “ad” came up. I accidentally tapped on the center one and it turned out to be a pimple popping video. Now every reel I see is that. No exceptions. I am sure if I actually watched more Reels I would get better content but that’s work. OMG this... a million times this :/. YouTube has similar issues--where you watch one video from some sitcom or cartoon not because it was from that particular show but because it happened to be about something interesting and suddenly YouTube is SURE you LOVE that show and want EVERYTHING IT HAS about that show--but it isn't quite so bad as Instagram, where I've heard a ton of stories about ending up pigeonholed by its algorithm into something they have a phobia for or past trauma related to, and now they are afraid to use the app, because it really does feel like you click on one pimple popping video (which has come up as the SPECIFIC issue for MULTIPLE people I've talked to, INCLUDING MYSELF a while ago) and BAM the app is now nothing but pimples being popped, 24/7.

oefrha 4y ago
I’ve always wondered why they are so bad at learning such an obvious lesson from their supposed biggest threat. TikTok seems to always mix it up; even if you do actually want to watch pimple popping 24/7, they seem to throw in some totally unrelated thing once in a while. Turns out people easily find things they didn’t even know they would enjoy this way, and when they have many interests, their feeds are way more engaging. What’s so hard about randomizing 10-20% of the time?
- solarkraft 4y ago
  It's probably really easy, it's just crazy that they don't seem to want to. I could imagine them chasing the local maximum.
- soco 4y ago
  TikTok seems the only one who actually put thought about it, because that's exactly the beef I have with Spotify as well. You play a "song radio" and find a new song so you move to that other song radio but only to get exactly the same list maybe shuffled a bit. Somehow they create bubbles of content and that's it, no way out. At least on Spotify you can change bubbles, while on YouTube good luck.

hellweaver666 4y ago

> Reels are often poor quality. What I see is mostly life hacks that are actually really stupid or jokes that never pay off I keep seeing obviously reposted popular tiktok videos. The same ones, over and over again but with different accounts. Same on YouTube shorts.

conradfr 4y ago

> I don’t think you can get those numbers with Reels. Can you even watch a reel without an account? Because I know I can't watch stories and after clicking one or two pictures my IP is blocked entirely from Instagram for x hours. I don't have this problem if someone sends me a TikTok link.

sanxiyn 4y ago

> I am sure if I actually watched more Reels I would get better content but that's work. Yes, you in fact get better recommendation as you use it more. Reading HN, sometimes it feels like I must be the only one in the world enjoying good recommendations from both YouTube and Instagram. I do have many thousands of watches and likes on YouTube and Instagram, but it didn't feel like work, because I accumulated them over years of use.

mns 4y ago

1. Is on point. I’m just a hobby photographer and follow some people for inspiration. I clicked on a comic from the discover page at one point and after that all the recommendations were just random Reddit like comics and posts. Same was when I randomly saw a picture of a tattoo and after that I only had tattoo pictures and reels in the discover section. It’s insane how bad it is.

user_named 4y ago

5. You can get a lot of exposure on tiktok whereas on Instagram they intentionally lower your organic exposure down to where it's now 1% or so of people who follow you who actually see your posts. Of course people are not going to post on Instagram then.

jareklupinski 4y ago

> a lack culture. TikTok somehow did foster a really cool culture of people creating content they were the only place you could post and share a video of yourself dancing / lip-syncing along to licensed music without getting DMCA'd

UncleMeat 4y ago

I agree with all of this except for TikTok ads being obvious. To me, it is not at all obvious which ones have the little "sponsored" at the bottom.