‘Make InstagramInstagram again’. If you’ve been on the ‘gram within the past few days, you’ll have seen those few words shared to numerous Instagram stories. With users complaining the photo sharing app’s latest update makes it look like TikTok, littered with full-screen videos and posts from people you don’t follow, many have become frustrated that it’s much more difficult to see your friends’ posts on your Feed.
Even Kylie Jenner - with 36 1million followers, Kylie is arguably the queen of Insta - has had enough, and shared a graphic on her story with the words: ‘Make Instagram Instagram again. (stop trying to be tiktok i just want to see cute photos of my friends.) Sincerely, everyone.’ Her older sister, Kim Kardashian, later shared the same post. The original graphic, which was started by influencer and photographer Tati Bruening, now has 2 million likes, and the petition has been signed by almost 200,000 people.
As many have pointed out, the last time Kylie complained about a social media app, a week later, Snapchat’s parent company lost $1.3 billion in market value. And all it took was Kylie tweeting: ‘sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad.’
While Kylie, Kim and others might be on our side, it seems Instagram isn’t so keen to go back to its old, more wholesome, ways. Adam Mosseri, the CEO of the app, said on Tuesday that it was inevitable Instagram would become more of a video platform. ‘I do believe that more and more of Instagram is going to become video over time,’ he said.
However, he did admit that the latest app update wasn’t yet ‘good’. Mosseri also added that ‘all the growth in photos and videos from friends has been in stories and in DMs’, hence why your friends’ posts might not appear in your feed. He added, ‘We will continue to show photos and videos from friends towards the top of Feed whenever we can, but the best way to keep up with friends seems to be with the other parts of Instagram.’
Chrissy Teigen pretty much summed up the mood by replying: ‘we don’t wanna make videos Adam lol’. Anyway, considering what happened to Snapchat days after Kylie complained, we’ll see if Instagram sticks to its guns.