Instagram users who wished the app would stop resembling TikTok, reduce its focus on Reels and get back to its photo-sharing roots are in for a rude surprise. Mark Zuckerberg just indicated that it’s probably not going to happen any time soon, albeit in not as many words.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that Instagram and Facebook are going to double recommendations of content from users that people don’t follow currently on these apps. Yes, that’s exactly what you think – Instagram and Facebook content from people whom you don’t follow or people who aren’t your friends is going to double in a year’s time.
During Meta’s earnings call on Wednesday, where revenues decreased for the very first time in a decade for the social media giant, Zuckerberg explained the rationale behind this new strategy for Instagram and Facebook.
Also Read: Instagram Is Going To Be Video-Centric Even If Kardashians Think It Sucks
“Al finds additional content that people find interesting, that increases engagement and the quality of our feeds,” said Mark Zuckerberg, according to a report in The Verge.
But this change isn’t going to be jarring and sudden, but gradual and over time, according to Zuckerberg. The doubling of content recommendations from accounts that people don’t follow on Instagram and Facebook is expected to happen by the end of 2023.
This renewed focus on discovery of new content to users of Facebook and Instagram is spurred by Mark Zuckerberg’s push towards building what’s being dubbed as Meta’s “Discovery Engine,” according to reports.
This new AI-based Discovery Engine is going to compete with TikTok’s AI-based recommendations for videos to their users, where relationships or follower status doesn’t matter as much as Facebook and Instagram’s historical focus on a user’s social graph, where posts and videos of friends or people you follow are prioritized over everything else.
Kylie and Kim requesting Instagram to go back to its roots.
There’s no doubt that the likes of Instagram and YouTube are facing a lot of heat from TikTok in the US and other parts of the world.
After Instagram head Adam Mosseri’s admission earlier this week that Instagram’s future is going to be about Reels and video content, this recent comment from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on increasing recommendations and flooding Instagram and Facebook users’ timeline with viral content isn’t surprising.
Are Instagram and Facebook users going to enjoy these new changes coming soon to their social feeds, or are they going to sign-up and start more campaigns in defiance like the one from Kim Kardashian which is asking Instagram to focus more on its image-sharing roots? Only time will tell.
What do you think about Mark Zuckerberg’s comments on the increase of unknown content recommendations in your Instagram and Facebook? Let us know in the comments below, and keep reading Digit.in for more daily tech news, reviews and updates.