Why Instagram failed to become TikTok
diklein.com
diklein.com
I spend far more time on TikTok now than Instagram and that is for a few reasons which may appear minor but make the difference:
- When you open instagram you will see a photo/video and after a few seconds you are sent to the top unable to find what you just saw. TikTok does not do this unless you swipe out.
- Videos on instagram can not be properly paused so when you need to stop a video for a few. seconds you can't. Instagram also doesn't allow you to seek/ffw some content, same issue in youtube shorts.
- On Tiktok you have all kinds of analytics about each post you make as a regular user.
- From reports that I have read, tiktok pays creators a lot more than instagram.
- When I post on tiktok I get far more interaction and this is probably also due to the localization of content and how it is broadcast/spread.the patent wars between multiple big tech companies have left the news cycle for a long time, but I wonder if this is a component of these distinctive UIs and algorithms, because TikTok's is obviously superior for both platform's goals
All Instagram feeds I've seen are boring attention-grabbing videos from so-called influencers. TikTok is grandma cooking pasta, my weird cousin doing some funny shit on his bedroom, some random bloke making a joke to his dog and the dog farts... I know. It sounds stupid... but it's way more entertaining.
Might be the culture (Instagram was already ridden with influencer culture), might be the algorithm, but TikTok content is just more entertaining. The fact that the app is better (which it is) is just the silver lining.
If you stop/switch while watching anything, you’ll have to start one again. If does allow you to scrub within certain videos but the UI is very finicky.
They try to trick you into “opening” ads by swapping gestures for ads (swipe down is different)
TikTok is simply a lot faster in terms of ui and responsiveness.
At a certain point, if will hang with videos until you change networks. Might be related to my network, but if it’s the only app that has this issue.
Search is just bad… super bad. I have to rely on google to search on Instagram
No links/ ways to go to part 2 etc.
That being said, I hope both of them magically disappear for the greater good of society :)
I am completely out of touch. Which age bracket prefers Instagram, which TikTok in your opinion?
Younger people on TikTok seem to be setting the trends (as it has always been throughout the history), which eventually make their way to Reels, Shorts and etc. So, they think Reels is cringe, as they just copy TikTok.
It's the usual "I don't want to be where the old people are" problem of every tech company that tries to attract younger user base. Similar to why people under 30 would use Facebook's social media section (yes, Marketplace, Groups and etc. are wildly being used by everyone), as that's what their "grandpas and grandmas are doing".
The whole thing becomes a mess and hard to evaluate when you think which app is banned where, so location plays a major role in userbase as well. In the end, I guess both are making a bank somehow.
1. Gatekeeping for no good reason. They broke web-experience as much as they could. There is a huge banner that doesn't let one view the content on the web version. It wasn't enough, so they blocked TOR and proxy. Now, I can't even view it without proxy of any kind. The account creation is complex, a phone number is required.
2. Censorship.
Youtube and other platforms are slowly poisoning themselves, too and will end up being irrelevant as time goes.
Replace real estate with Attention and its the same story. Attention is finite just like Land. There is only so much of it that can be sold limited by money supply in the system. Once that limit is reached cook up bullshit to keep selling real estate and in this case view counts up.
Interesting difference is it's not just about bubble bursting but also info sewage accumulating in people's heads through this notion that info flow into people's heads can forever increase.
This is also a key point. on tiktok the algorithm is very good anyway but you can ‘train’ it whilst using it to get it to show you what your interested in at that point in time.
If i want more silly videos i simply watch those and skip others and it very quickly gets the message. The next time i use it it resets and i can choose longer form informational videos that time.
On Instagram it’s the opposite and I’ve found myself having a mix of accounts to ‘trick’ it into showing me very different content types.
For example there’s no way that Instagram would ever show electronics or developer content my main account explore page I’ve tried! So i had to create a separate account for that kind of content.
Interestingly i get no sexualised content on my other accounts but where I’m following interests that are typically very male oriented i get the overly sexualised content. I never see any of that on tiktok and it covers all my interests sometimes without me even telling it!
Which is exactly why TikTok is better.
I'm there for entertainment, not for business.
Its too one dimensional.
Maybe it’s because I signed up with a burner phone number and I avoid (as much as I’m able) giving Meta any scrap of data to link to my IRL identity
Don't like any pages or anything, then check the suggestions: It's a 100% softcore porn for horny dudes.
I think it is more just network effect in play here - I feel that every generation has their de facto social media platform — the “boomers” have facebook, then comes instagram, and among the youngest generations is tiktok the biggest.
Though I don’t have hard data on that, just anecdotal evidence.
So if that were the case and Instagram only gets content reposted from Tiktok, it would mean that millenials do not produce content. But of course they do.
that would be an interesting observation if I hadn't written
> is mostly just
words matters
Every time I am uninstalling TikTok my life feels better, more relaxed.
Moving to my new phone I've again left it uninstalled, now for 2 months and I hope I can keep it that way
Instagram's feed is full of bullshit that has nothing to do with anyone I follow. It's a conduit for spam at this point, and everyone knows it.
TikTok on the other hand is just a sewer line. I don't know what dictates the effluent they're funneling through anyone's feed, but it represents a new low even to cynics. Just... mind-boggling stupidity.
Vine came and went. So why the ascendance of TikTok? Human stupidity. My condolences to Vine's creators.