In the last few months, Instagram has gone through many changes. There were bookmarks, Stories, drafts, likable comments, tags, and so on, but perhaps the most important thing Instagram has changed was its algorithmic feed. Back in March 2016, Instagram switched its feed from chronological to best posts first. This bold move was quite controversial then, but now that enough time has passed, we’re able to objectively see the changes the algorithmic feed brought.
Facebook-owned photo sharing app now has over 600 million monthly active users, which is almost 10% of the world population. Evidently, the changes worked.
Of course, the algorithm change is not the only thing that brought more users; Stories gave people a reason to check the app more frequently, likable comments and tags made people feel more “at home” since the majority of people using Instagram also use Facebook, but the algorithmic feed is what truly made the biggest difference. Instagram’s new algorithm made sure people only see what they really want to see on their feed, which is the best way to make people use any app.
This just goes to show that, although in general people don’t like change, keeping up with the times is a recipe for success.
Reference:
TechCrunch (https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/15/instagram-surges-past-600m-users-fueled-by-algorithmic-feed/)
The Wonderful World of Algorithms 