Instagram Chief Says ‘Following’ Feed Option Won’t Work

Hey, do you want Instagram or Facebook to add a following only feed, so you only see the latest posts and updates from accounts that you’ve explicitly chosen to follow in each app?

Bad news, that’s not gonna’ be coming any time soon.

In his weekly Q and A session last week, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri answered a question about exactly this, and explained why social apps are all now moving towards more algorithm-defined, recommendations-based feeds.

As per Mosseri:

“Of course we’ve thought about it, and we’ve tested it and tried it a number of times. Every time we have, there’s a sub-group of people who are happy, there’s a bunch of people who forget that they’re in it, and then overall, everybody who’s in it uses Instagram less and less over time, and when we ask them questions like ”how satisfied are you with Instagram?”, they actually report being less happy with Instagram more and more over time, on average. And then there’s these second order effects where their friends start using Instagram less [and] because they use it less, they send less likes and comments, messages, and then there’s all of this other stuff, and it just gets worse and worse, and quickly.”

So while people may want a following only feed, the data shows that Instagram sees less engagement overall, and less user satisfaction, when it enables such.

Which is why 50% of the content that Instagram users now see in the app has been pushed to them via its AI-based recommendations process.

Because it enhances the user experience, because it keeps people using the app for longer, and while you personally may find it annoying that you’re being shown all this stuff from profiles that you don’t follow, the overall numbers show that it’s better for IG to take this approach.

The logic of this stems from TikTok, which has never focused on your following, and has always aimed to highlight the most entertaining content in the app. Meta’s key advantage used to be its social graph, and that no other app had the same amount of insight into your friends, family, interests, etc.

But TikTok changed that paradigm by using algorithmic recommendations based on what you watch, something that wasn’t possible when Facebook was first launched. That means that TikTok is able to double-down on hits in the app, and maximize time spent, which Meta has now also adapted, as has X, Snapchat, etc.

They do this because it works, because overall, the charts go up when they show you more stuff that its system thinks you’ll like.

Mosseri further notes that Instagram is still exploring its options on this front. 

“There’s a need here, right? There’s clearly a group of people who really want to get to their connections’ content quickly.  We’ve tried to help by creating a Following feed, allowing you to Snooze recommendations for a month, creating Favorites so you can make sure you never miss anything from accounts that you really want to see everything from, but I’m sure there’s more we can do and we’re going to continue to explore more in the space.”

But I wouldn’t be holding your breath. If social apps can keep you in-app for longer, they can show you more ads, and make more money off of that attention.

So it makes sense why your feed has changed, right?