Anyone that has had Instagram downloaded for some time, knows that the app has undergone and continues to undergo major changes within its structure. With nearly 3.8 billion downloads, Instagram is one of the most prevalent forms of social media today. Recently, many users have become frustrated with Instagram's new formatting. By 2025, Instagram will almost certainly be on an irreversible negative-growth trajectory. So much so, that some users have gone as far to petition against how different Instagram has become.
When Instagram first hit the app store on October 6th of 2010, it was an app that gave users the ability to take and share photos quickly. The idea behind the name “Instagram '' is a portmanteau of the words “instant camera” and “telegram.” The intention behind the initial release of the app was for people to be able to build community by being able to easily share photos of their lives and experiences. The app’s launch into popularity depended on people's relationships and connections to one another.
Within the past few years, Instagram has implemented tools to where it makes it easy for content creators or businesses to monetize content and post content related to business. The first big move towards this formatting of Instagram took place on May 31st, of 2016. This was the end of the reverse-chronological feed that so many Instagram users were so fond of. The introduction of a curated feed according to the user's personalized interests came to fruition. People have become increasingly frustrated with this feature due to missing friends’ and family’s posts on their feeds. The 2016 Instagram update also gave users the opportunity to designate their account as a business or creator profile, have access to analytics, and promote their posts. This was a game changer for those who wanted to monetize or promote content on social media. To the regular user, this hindered their experience using the app. Instagram has become an app that is less and less welcoming to those who want a casual form of social media. Instagram has become more about likes, shares, saves, and reposts rather than simply posting a photo.
In reaction to the changes to Instagram, many online articles have advice on keeping your post from being lost or hidden in the algorithm. According to socialsprout, the most important factors to beating the Instagram algorithm are “timeliness, relationship, frequency, following, and usage.” Frequency is arguably the most important of all of the ways to beat the Instagram algorithm. Posting frequently allows posts to appear in people’s feeds more often, which in turn allows for more interaction with accounts. Another important factor in beating the algorithm on Instagram is interacting with other accounts. This means liking and commenting on other users' posts consistently. As for following, the more accounts you follow the less content from desired accounts you will see. Lastly, the more time you spend on the app the more you will see people's posts.
Unfortunately, the app has no plans of returning to its initial formatting but for regular Instagram users, there are ways to slightly “hack” the algorithm. Instagram users need to accept that it’s simply a different app than it was 5 years ago. The app has proven to be ever changing.