The company that owns Instagram, Facebook, is putting a great effort into keeping the IG on the top line. Facebook keeps making changes and updates to the app to keep its fans happy.
Over the past year, the company’s developers have removed key features from the app and even omit different sets of data from view to keep users more committed. The major change from last year is that they removed the ‘Following’ section from the app from all platforms. They even made a move to remove the like counter from certain areas in North America; however, that didn’t work too well for the firm.
Instagram changes for 2020
This year, developers have decided to remove the IGTV button, which allows users to upload longer videos than the app initially allowed. However, the IGTV button is kind of a failed experiment as it didn’t attract the public’s eye that much, having only 1% of Instagram’s user base downloads. It is probably a smart move for the company. IGTV is also available as a standalone app at the moment.
“As we’ve continued to work on making it easier for people to create and discover IGTV content, we’ve learned that most people are finding IGTV content through previews in Feed, the IGTV channel in Explore, creators’ profiles and the standalone app,” said a Facebook representative, in an interview with TechCrunch. “Very few are clicking into the IGTV icon in the top right corner of the home screen in the Instagram app… We always aim to keep Instagram as simple as possible, so we’re removing this icon based on these learnings and feedback from our community.”
Facebook’s Instagram app has a pretty big Chinese competitor, which is TikTok, and we can see how hard they are trying to keep the users pleased. Which, in the end, is a win-win for both sides.
