Instagram is at it again, and folks who use the app aren’t happy.

Here’s the changes and what they are testing:

Recent Instagram changes focus on a new navigation layout, personalized algorithms, and enhanced features for Reels and DMs. A major redesign places Reels and DMs more prominently, allows users to swipe between tabs, and introduces new features like watch history for Reels and AI-powered text styling in Stories.

They laid out a map location, which folks were livid about while also changing views reels were getting. They basically have wanted folks to pay to play, and Instagram was losing their audience in groves. People were deleting the app in large numbers.

They also redesigned bottom navigation bar places Stories + Feed first, Reels second, and DMs third. You can now swipe between these tabs as well as tap them.
Instagram was testing a feature where users can shape their feed by removing content topics starting with reels. They launched “competitive Insights” which is a wrong approach to social media for business. Not everything is a competition- how someone else’s business goes about creating content and targeting their audience will not benefit yours (even in the same niche.)

Another feature is that you a now block specific people from viewing your stories without blocking them from your other posts.  There is also a feature for you to approve follows.  They added reposting, which then took away from people getting views in their stories.

If you head over to Threads, you will see everyone complain about Instagram. Everyone was getting views, likes, comments and shares, then they changed the algorithm, and folks with a good following started to see less and less views, like, and shares.

BUT what was getting views was posts with photos, not reels. I hit some really good numbers with posting photos set to music… some got 20k, 10k, and 5K views, while my reels were now getting less than 2k, which was exploding prior to the changes they made.

If I ran Instagram, I would not change what was working because 50% of users have abandoned the app altogether.