Instagram search is my daily frustration. 100% of the time I search I’m looking for a user’s account. Type type type, see the user come up in results, go to tap but now they’ve loaded in 10 possible autocomplete options for my search, pushing the thing I want off the screen. And of course now I’m in the “explore” page with a search term I don’t want, taking a bunch more taps to get where I need to go.
I agree with others that I think the incentives are against the user here. In the IG case they don’t care if I find my friend quickly. It does not help them in any way. But hey they got a click on the autocomplete suggestions (win for that PM) AND another view on the explore page. Clearly I love these features!