Widespread criticism from Instagram users of the latest version of the app begs the question: why did they change it?
One answer is that the image and video sharing app is more like its main rival, TikTok, which has been growing its user base faster.
TikTok is purely video, so Instagram is headed that way as well.
“We’ve been trying to make Instagram better with video,” Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said in a video last week.
But competition from TikTok and the turn to video still doesn’t account for all the changes.
Why is it so hard to mute videos now?
Why is it no longer possible to scroll quickly and smoothly through your feed?
The answers to these questions lie in behavioral economics, application design, and the murky world of “dark patterns.”
Instagram says users want to watch more videos, despite some saying otherwise.
What is a dark pattern?
Dark patterns are all the ways in which websites, applications and other user interfaces are designed to deliberately obfuscate, mislead, coerce and/or trick website visitors and application users into making unwanted decisions .
UK-based user experience consultant Harry Brignull coined the term in 2010 when he was studying the websites of low-cost airlines.
More than a decade later, the idea of dark patterns has become common place.
“When I came up with the idea of dark patterns, I thought it was just a niche thing that was used every once in a while. I thought it was really smart to notice,” Brignull said.
“And now it’s everywhere.”
Some dark patterns are subtle, some are really obvious.
When it’s very easy to sign up for an account but hard to cancel, that’s what Mr. Brignull calls a “cockroach motel”—easy to get in and hard to get out.
When a sales website puts a countdown clock on an offer to speed up a customer’s decision-making, that’s also a dark pattern.
Many are malicious, but not all. When the supermarket website reminds you which groceries you bought last time and didn’t buy this time, that’s a dark pattern, but also a somewhat useful one.
Above all, our daily lives are constantly being shaped by dark patterns.
A recent report found that 83 per cent of Australians have had a negative experience caused by shady patterns that push them to spend more than they intended or accidentally sign up for something.
The big social media platforms are among the best at exploiting these deception techniques, Brignull said.
“These software companies have teams of data scientists and designers coming together to optimize all the numbers,” he said.
“These companies are incentivized to use manipulative techniques.”
Is this why it’s harder to mute Insta videos?
Mostly yes.
To summarize, the new version of Instagram has more videos, more ads and suggested posts, fast scrolling instead of continuous scrolling, and stretches content to the edges of the screen.
Along with that, it’s a bit more difficult to mute or unmute videos. Before I could tap the video to mute it, now this pauses the video.
The petition is distributed on Instagram. (Supplied: Instagram)
An article earlier this week suggested that some of these changes appeared to be “dark patterns lifted from TikTok.”
Brignull generally agreed. Making it harder to mute audio, he said, was “a bit user-hostile and business-friendly.”
Videos with sound on were more engaging, which meant users were more likely to watch them, he said.
“You can see why they’ve done that. They want to get the graph that shows the video view rate going up and to the right.”
The switch from smooth continuous scrolling to fast scrolling, so that users flip between videos and are forced to pay more attention to each, was also designed to increase video viewing figures, he said.
“It looks like this will increase the view numbers of each video.”
But what is good for the figures is not necessarily popular with the viewers themselves.
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This is especially the case for an app that is over a decade old and has over a billion users.
A petition started three days ago to “make Instagram Instagram again” has more than 100,000 signatures and the support of high-profile users such as Kylie Jenner.
Critics say the photos they want to see are being buried by videos the algorithm wants them to see.
None of this is new: every time Instagram updates its platform, some users complain and ask to go back to sharing simple photos.
There is a certain irony in Instagram influencers expressing nostalgia for a time when the platform had a less commercial bent.
Either way, Instagram must continue to find a way to compete with TikTok without alienating its existing users, Brignull said.
“I think they realized that TikTok is doing exceptionally well and that video is a great medium to run ads and sell ads that perform well.”
“They are under constant pressure to increase performance.”
Users ‘shift more to videos over time’: Instagram
On Tuesday, responding to user criticism, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri released a video “to clear some things up.”
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First, he said, the changes were “a test for a small percentage of people.”
“It’s still not good, and we’ll have to get it to a good place if we send it to the rest of the Instagram community.”
That may be true, but Instagram has been testing the new full-screen version since at least May, and has apparently rolled it out to more users since then.
The change to the video, he said, would not be reversed.
“If you look at what people are sharing on Instagram, that’s shifting more to video over time,” he said.
So the changes are probably here to stay, despite the clamor.
Nick Johnson, a QUT behavioral economist, said people would get used to the change.
“People don’t like change, but also people tend to adapt pretty quickly,” he said.
Brendan Markey-Towler, a behavioral economist in Brisbane, agreed.
“I think it’s a bit of inertia from people not liking changes to the app.”
Mr. Brignull preferred to wait and see.
“It’s always very annoying when a product is changed under your feet,” he said.
“All social media companies use some form of manipulation to get you to do things.
“Over the next few weeks we will see if that [new] version works better.
“Then we can judge for ourselves how deceptive it really is.”