Instagram's shift away from being a photo-sharing app fits within its broader continuous evolution, from photo filtering tool to network to Stories and beyond
Creators and merchants gain reach through recommendation surfaces instead of follower counts, so curation slots like Spotlight Compilations and Shopping channels become the distribution that determines who gets seen.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, an app's identity is set by its distribution algorithm rather than its content format — and the reported yearslong campaign to win back teens by adjusting recommendations shows how much engagement pressure rides on that shift.
The trend: Social apps built on friend graphs are converging on recommendation-first entertainment feeds, and Instagram's deliberate shedding of its photo-sharing identity is the clearest data point yet.
If Instagram really wants to be ahead of the game, yall would laser focus on being a more inclusive, accessible space for Black creators, LGBTQ creators, and other marginalized ppl who are being pushed off of your competitor's platforms. https://twitter.com/...
The inevitable jealousy and chase of one social platform to do what the competing platform is doing, eventually ruining what the product was initially great at. https://stratechery.com/...
Instagram was never a “photo app” It's about connecting to creators. As a photographer and an early user, it was this that separated itself from “photo apps” I can surf the internet, see some amazing photos. But IG allowed me to get to know the person, share in their experience. …
You're not listening to your audience, and that's why IG is in the pickle they're in. I don't want to be entertained on IG, I want to see pretty pictures from my friends in chronological order and with an algorithm that serves me more organic content than the ads I see. https://t…
I guess social media platforms have to be amorphous containers for changing user behaviors and preferences (bit of chicken & egg here) so we can't ever expect a “final product state” esp now that mobile & digital have absorbed and recreated the the entire world in our pockets.
This is an accurate take on what we're doing. To be clear, we're not abandoning photos or photo creators and artists. We're looking at new ways to entertain people. Video is a big part of that, but so are photos. https://twitter.com/...
Instagram's Evolution Instagram's shift away from being a photo-sharing app is very much inline with the service's continuous evolution. https://stratechery.com/...