Instagram sucks.
When’s the last time you opened IGTV?
A good friend and I had a conversation about Instagram when they started getting aggressive.
Instagram has made serious attempts to try and kill Twitter, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat. The attacks on Snap seem to have worked.
Instagram has capitalized on the shortcomings of its competition. Else, it’s outright copied them. The question is, has it capitalized too much?
Let’s look at how IG’s competitors have stumbled.
Originally, Twitter was comedic and whimsical.
Yes people made serious life connections on the platform but this was mostly light hearted fun. Even business types used to let loose on the platform.
Since the Arab Spring, Twitter lost its cool. It became a powerful platform for change. Sadly, all the easy going days are gone.
People genuinely fear being dragged on Twitter for a comment or a Tweet they made. All of these now risque conversations of Twitter have moved to private group chats. As a result users have fled the platform. This has left Twitter gravely injured.
Snap’s decline almost needs no explanation.
At first Snap was used for more “nefarious” use cases. People saw snap as the platform for sending intimate photos. Snap was easy to write off still. Facebook accidentally legitimized Snap when they launched the Poke app.
Ever since Instagram launched Stories and Direct Messages, people’s need for Snap has decreased. There was a moment in time where people were using Snap as a go to chat app, like they would WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. Since Instagram copied Snap’s functionality, people have stopped opening Snapchat.
Snap also failed to grow overseas. This is the fault of Evan Spiegel directly. He wrote off India until it was already too late. LINE has stores and cafes in places like Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai and even in New York’s Time Square. WeChat has throughly beat Snap (and everyone else) in China.
While it’s true that Snap ultimately failed at supplanting platforms such as LINE and WeChat in Asian countries, Snap’s demise was largely due to Instagram.
Twitter and Instagram always had something Snap never had. They were cohesive. 140 characters or a photo and a filter are simple to learn. Try explaining all the nuances and features of Snapchat. Even just explaining the difference between stories and memories is daunting. Still, users loved the platform. Sadly, it became redundant after Instagram copied it.
Since Twitter has flatlined and Snapchat has nose dived, Instagram has copied more features and created new ones.
Instagram has become so ingrained in youth culture that since it’s 2010 launch, long-time users of the app have partaken in an “IG purge”. Socially, Instagram is like a resume for young people. This is why you will commonly find users with just one photo on Instagram. It’s a form of protecting your online and real life reputation.
Reputation or “clout” is very important on Instagram. Almost too important.
Recall our angry Twitter mob? That mob is the same one that chased celebrities off of Twitter and onto Instagram.
Online conversations have moved into Instagram comments, making the app noisier than it originally was.
The comment section is a popularity contest. A sort of “Clout Olympics”.
You can clearly tell that Instagram was not intended for back and fourth conversations unlike Twitter.
This conversation about investing in $Uber has many comments and is hard to follow. Some comment threads show up expanded by default, allowing replies to be read.
Other threads require you to tap the “View more replies” button.
Facebook is deciding what comments we can and cannot see without interacting with an extra button. This is exactly why Instagram is terrible for text based conversation compared to Twitter.
Instagram trying to be the platform for everything, is turning it into a low quality app.
This leaves room for an incumbent (hi VSCO).
Instagram shed it’s identity of filters (maybe unintentionally) to become what it is today and avoid being uncool.
Sadly, this transformation has led to half baked features and made the app bloated. Even the loved Direct Messages feature needs a facelift.
Bad design abundant
Take a look at this screenshot of a Direct Message conversation.
While the conversation itself makes great use of blank space, the top and bottom of the screen are packed with icons.
Firstly, does anyone know what the Flag does? The other two icons project their purpose. The flag is mysterious and offers no explanation when pressed.
This is a hilarious oversight given that the Video Call button beside it, does not have an equivalent button for audio only calls. Nice job Facebook.
On the top bar, you also can see a ton of unused space, which I’m sure Instagram will use to pack in more half-baked features.
Moreover, there are two separate features to send photos and a voice note button but no voice calls. Very bizarre.
Sadly, it get’s worse.
IGTV may be the biggest sign of Instagram’s obesity and incoherence.
Disgusting amounts of overlapping text aside (seriously), IGTV is still horrendously bad design.
There is a ton of unused space, half visible icons and unexplained icons.
The placement of the Search icon is bizarre. It should be beside the History button. At the very least the Settings icon should be in that space.
A more logical placement would be to put the settings icon in the top righthand corner and increase transparency as it’s less often needed.
The Search icon should be in the space beside the History button as it would be used frequently.
IGTV caters to the very top of its userbase, while managing to annoy everyone who isn’t an online brand. Yes Gary Vaynerchuck might be able to make the most of it, but even his content could be formatted better. Notice how his titles overlap the video content?
A small B2B SaaS company picking its power users over the general population of users is smart. Instagram has crossed 1 Billion users. Instagram has given into far too much to popular content creators.
Giving your power users tools to create the best content possible is wise. To do so by cluttering your user interface is foolish.
Still, IGTV isn’t exactly a home run for content creators.
IGTV forces creators to custom tailor each video to better suit the platform. This is a death wish for Instagram. If they seriously want to take on YouTube and TikTok (formally Musical.ly) they had better get it together quickly.
If top creators are still figuring out IGTV almost a year after launch, you screwed up. Especially if those top creators are marketers.
Facebook realized that YouTube has an insane amount of young people that produce and consume content every daily. YouTube has supplanted TV for people with a certain age group.
Envy is why Facebook as a whole (Instagram and WhatsApp included) has become a disaster. Remember the Poke app? Facebook has lost track of what makes them great every single time a strong competitor comes along.
Silicon Valley isn’t that complicated or different from high school or hip-hop. Mark Zuckerberg’s ego got hurt and he damaged his own platform trying to copy his competition. Let’s not forget, the “poke” sound is Mark’s own voice.
It’s the copying that made Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp strong that is now a liability.
There is still hope for Instagram.
The top bar has tons of unused space on the left side. A refreshing lack of clutter.
Also, Instagram has cleverly turned the Instagram logo itself into a button.
If you tap the Instagram logo, you can switch between accounts. It’s okay this feature isn’t obvious because it’s intended for power users.
The power users will learn, regular users will not.
They could have easily duplicated the active account’s avatar or turned the “Your Story” button into a multi-purpose button but elected not to.
This is a perfect example of not forcing a design to accommodate a smaller subset of your userbase.
Instagram is still beloved by its users. Many UI/UX mistakes aside, IG is still engrained into modern culture. Facebook does have a chance to take a chunk of creators from YouTube.
If Instagram wants to be the one platform to rule them all, it needs to figure out just how much it packs into the core app.
Facebook used to have Messenger, Groups and many other features contained in the main Facebook app. Wisely, Facebook split these features into multiple apps.
While this caused a relative uproar, it allowed Facebook to have more dedicated teams to focus on these apps and not to be confined to the design elements of the Facebook app.
Likely, Instagram needs to do the same.
