For the past couple of years, Instagram has been strict. Limited. When users reach the end of their feeds, they’re shown a notification which not only informs as such but also seems to say:
“Alright, you’ve spent enough time on this app. Time to get moving. Come on, move along.”
According to Instagram’s former CEO and co-founder, Kevin Systrom, it was a move made with users’ mental health in mind. It was, he said, a move that will “help the Instagram community know more about the time they spent on Instagram.”
He also added that “any time should be positive and intentional.”
And though the content-hungry generation of the Internet may disagree, it was, for the most part, a healthy move.
But it seems that like everything else, things have changed. Apparently, Instagram has reversed big time on its original stance with its latest ‘offer’:
The launch of suggested posts, that will show up after you’ve reached the end of your feed.
Well, there goes the users’ mental health alright.
Instagram Will Now Show You Posts from People You’ve Not Followed & Here’s Their Official Reason
According to The Verge, Instagram will be expanding its feed with the launch of “suggested posts”. Apparently, there will be an option to continue scrolling with Instagram’s suggestions, even after you have reached the end of your current feed.
These posts, which hail from accounts you don’t follow, are set to be displayed after you’ve reached the end.
For the record, the suggested posts will not be the same ones that show up on Explore.
Rather, they will be related to content that people already follow. On the other hand, Explore tends to direct people toward adjacent content.
Now you might be wondering;
Why the sudden change in their stance? After all, have they not been preaching the importance of mental health for the past few years?
Why This Latest Development?
Well, Julian Gutman, head of product at Instagram Home, has spoken out. And according to him, it really stems from an intention to bring relevant content to interested parties.
“I think for us this really came from a vision a couple of years ago around people really seeing feed as a place for their interests, and with the improvement in machine learning and our ability to kind of make it easier for you to see some more of those posts that are on Instagram every day, and really bring that personalized relevance to you,” he says.
“So we just want to make it really easy for people to see that [relevant content] when they get to the end of their feed. That’s really the motivation here, make it easier for you to go deeper on your interest.”
Though whether it’s a genuine interest as they say, or really an intention to create more space for ads, is a question that remains up in the air.
It should be noted, however, that the suggested posts feel like a cue derived from Tik Tok, where users are exposed to a never-ending feed of content.
And considering the company’s recent launch of their Reels function (which is strikingly similar to Tik Tok’s primary video-sharing function), it’s becoming painfully clear what Instagram’s getting at.
Though whether anyone can stop them, is quite another question altogether.
Read Also: IG Coming Up With New Function That’s Suspiciously Similar To Rival App
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