If you’ve opened Instagram not too long ago and observed extra Reels in your feed or much less engagement in your posts and felt the platform was starting to look a liiiittle an excessive amount of like TikTok, you’re not alone. The app’s second most-followed particular person agrees.
Kylie Jenner shared a screenshot of one other person’s submit on her Instagram Stories as we speak, eager for the good outdated days of Instagram as a photograph sharing app.
“Make Instagram Instagram again,” the submit says. “(Stop trying to be tiktok i just want to see cute photos of my friends). Sincerely, everyone.” Her sister Kim Kardashian additionally shared the identical submit, which has over 1.1 million likes. The related Change.org petition has almost 100,000 signatures.
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Image: Instagram
Instagram’s regular creep into TikTok territory isn’t new — Meta, which owns Instagram, has been pushing Reels for months, which itself is a TikTok clone product. The firm has incentivized creators making Reels by rewarding them with cash bonuses and has stated it downranks videos which might be reposted from TikTok.
Up till this level, it appears Jenner has suffered in silence. But more moderen modifications like a full-screen impact on videos — and final week’s information that almost all new videos posted to Instagram will robotically turn out to be Reels — appear to have hit a nerve.
With 360 million followers, Jenner is second in followers solely to soccer participant Cristiano Ronaldo. A billionaire bemoaning app updates is definitely on the low finish, priority-wise, of issues occurring in the world — the Kardashians’ many companies flourish on Instagram, however even with an algorithm or product tweak, they’ll be simply wonderful.
What’s extra attention-grabbing is whether or not Instagram cares about the suggestions, particularly given Jenner’s historical past of weighing in on social platforms. In 2018, after a Snapchat redesign gave the firm grief, Jenner tweeted that she doesn’t open the app anymore. Snap’s inventory misplaced roughly $1.3 billion in worth over the following day. Jenner isn’t alone in her dislike for a short-form video-heavy Instagram: when Instagram posted a TikTok video saying a take a look at of the full-screen video feed, the submit was flooded with adverse reactions, lots of that are some iteration of “NOOOOO.”
Instagram didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
