Explainer-in-brief: Instagram’s attempt to outshine TikTok
Instagram is scrambling to keep up with its competitor TikTok – and events last month showed how trying to copycat the latter can fall flat. Instagram had to reverse some of its new features after users complained the app was becoming too much like TikTok. Users were also aggrieved their home feeds got inundated by suggested content they weren’t particularly interested in.
The company has now shared inside information about how it selects the recommended posts that end up in your home feed. It looks like CEO Adam Mosseri is attempting to regain users’ trust.
What the algorithm does is select posts similar to what the people you already follow usually share. The aim is to make your home interface a coherent space.
In short, Instagram is intervening in the process of “progressive personalisation”. It will have to wait and see whether people like having someone else doing their homework or not.