Kim and Kylie Want the Old Instagram Back, But the CEO Is Doubling Down

Remember when, many moons ago, Kylie Jenner complained about the Snapchat update, and their stock plummeted almost immediately?

sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad.

— Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) February 21, 2018

Well, she’s back at it, but this time around, she’s waging a war with Instagram.

The reality TV star took to her IG Stories to complain about the new update, which is eerily similar to TikTok.

Jenner shared a post which read: “Make Instagram Instagram Again. (Stop trying to be tiktok i just want to see cute photos of my friends.) Sincerely, Everyone.”

She then wrote: “PLEASEEEEEEE.”

Her elder sisters Kim and Kourtney Kardashian also shared the post, adding “pretty please” and “yes please.”

Collectively, the three of them have over 800 million followers, so it’s safe to say their input matters.

This is most likely why Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri finally broke his silence on the negative feedback surrounding the changes in a video shared on … Twitter.

👋🏼 There’s a lot happening on Instagram right now.

I wanted to address a few things we’re working on to make Instagram a better experience.

Please let me know what you think 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/x1If5qrCyS

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) July 26, 2022

“It’s a test to a few percentage of people out there,” he said.

“The idea is that a more-full screen experience — not only for videos but for photos — might be a more fun and engaging experience.

“But I also want to be clear: it’s not yet good. And we’re going to have to get it to a place if we’re going to ship it to the rest of the Instagram community.”

Mosseri continued by addressing one of the main complaints users have: Prioritising reels over photos of friends and family.

“Now I want to be clear: we’re going to continue to support photos — it’s part of our heritage,” he said.

“That said, I need to be honest — I do believe that more and more of Instagram is going to become video over time. We see this even if we change nothing. We see this even if you just look at chronological feed.”

“If you look at what people like and consume and view on Instagram, that’s also shifting more and more to video over time, even when we stop changing anything,” he continued.

“So we’re going to have to lean into that shift while continuing to support photos.”

Look, if people’s Instagram feed is anything like mine, then the only reels I see are ones recycled from TikTok. 

Anyway, Mosseri said that the app is focusing on “evolving”, but it will prioritise the posts you actually want to see on your feed “where possible”.

“We’re also going to need to evolve, because the world is changing quickly and we’re going to have to change along with it,” he said.