Instagram Pauses TikTok-Style Redesign After Complaints, Says Shift to Video Inevitable: Report

Instagram head Adam Mosseri said the features were a work in progress, and being tested with a small number of users earlier this week.

By Agence France-Presse | Updated: 29 July 2022 10:36 IST

Instagram pauses TikTok-style redesign

Highlights

Instagram will pause features that users have campaigned against TikTok
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri had responded to this earlier this week
He shared a Twitter video and said the features were a work in progress

Instagram will pause features that users have campaigned against and complained make the social network too much like TikTok, according to a report in the Platformer tech newsletter Thursday.

Celebrity sisters Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner were some of the most vocal users to have posted messages on social media this week calling for the company to "make Instagram Instagram again" and stop trying to be like TikTok.

The slogan sprang from a change.org petition that had received more than 229,000 signatures as of late Thursday.

[Sponsored] Samsung Galaxy S24: The Ultimate Camera Phone With Smarter On-Device AI

"Lets go back to our roots with Instagram and remember that the intention behind Instagram was to share photos, for Pete's sake," the petition read.

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri had responded to the controversy earlier this week with a video on Twitter in which he said the features were a work in progress, and being tested with a small number of users.

Changes included playing up short-form video, displaying it full-screen the way TikTok does, and recommending posts from strangers.

Instagram Responds to Criticism Over TikTok-Style Video Layout: Details

"I'm glad we took a risk," Mosseri was quoted as saying Thursday in an interview with Platformer's Casey Newton.

"But we definitely need to take a big step back and regroup."

"If we're not failing every once in a while, we're not thinking big enough or bold enough," Mosseri said.

Mosseri argued that the shift to more video would happen even if the service changed nothing, as users increasingly share and seek video snippets.

"If you look at what people share on Instagram, that is shifting more and more to video over time," Mosseri said.

"We are going to have to lean into that shift."

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg backed that position during an earnings call Wednesday, saying people are increasingly watching video online.

Both Meta and Google are among companies facing increased competition from TikTok for people's attention, and have launched their own versions of short-form video sharing.

Gaana CEO and Spotify's India chief join us on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast, to discuss India's unique music streaming landscape. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.