But the latest update has turned out to be a disaster (we guess it is safe to say so considering the outrage among users) as it hints that the platform is shifting its focus towards the “Reels” feature, which has disappointed its loyal users.If you have logged in to your Instagram account over the last few days, you must have observed a teeny-tiny but significant change in the user interface.Well, if you remember, a few months ago, Instagram replaced the “Explore” button with “Reels” and shifted the former at the top of the screen beside the direct message icon.
This change caused quite a discomfort as users would habitually click on the button that earlier opened their explore feed only to find reels videos there.A similar change has been introduced with the latest update where Instagram has replaced the “Create” button (the plus icon) with the “Reels” button and the ‘Activity” tab (the heart icon) with the “Shop” tab on the bottom navbar.
Users can now find the create button and activity tab on their screen’s top right-hand side beside the direct message button.Whether Instagram has done this deliberately or not, giving the “Reels” a center position on its navigation bar gives the users a hint that the platform is now giving more priority to Reels and Shopping than the main feed content.
As one can figure it out, users are not really delighted with this, and you can see how furious they are through their online posts and tweets.Instagram’s Take on This New UpdateWith its recent announcement about the update, Instagram asserts that the way youngsters and content creators of this generation are using the platform is transforming.
The number of short videos posted across the platform has skyrocketed, and also there has been a tremendous shift towards online shopping ever since the pandemic hit the world.On this new addition of the reels tab, Instagram believes that it offers a type of global stage to the content creators for sharing their art and work with the rest of the world and have an opportunity to break out and discover an audience.However, if truth be told, this Reels feature is actually competing with the famous TikTok platform directly, and Instagram is hyping it just like it hyped the “Stories” feature, which was also copied from another popular social media platform, Snapchat.But unlike Instagram Stories, Reels is not resonating with the platform’s loyal users, which is why the app is pouring all the more efforts and going the extra mile by actually placing the tab front and center.Replacing the “Create” tab with the “Reels” feature is certainly a risk, although the company believes that not introducing such changes will be an even bigger risk to the platform’s future.Moreover, Instagram further said that they don’t bring these changes without giving it a good deal of consideration.
Instagram believes that the greatest risk to its platform is not that it changes too often, but that it doesn’t change fast enough and becomes irrelevant to the audience.While the company seems quite excited about this new update, its user base does not seem to have mutual feelings.In fact, the audience seems to be so furious on Instagram that they took to various platforms, including Twitter, to share their hard feelings.