Good or Bad? Instagram Ditches the Unpopular Following Tab
“Simplicity was the driving factor”
When it comes to social media platforms, we are all guilty of checking the likes comments every few minutes. But, most of us don’t like to be notified of what other people, especially strangers are doing with their time. Instagram management seems to have got the hang of it because after removing Instagram likes, they have now removed the not so popular Following Tab.
The Following Tab was launched in 2011 when people used to discover new content by looking at what others were following. But things changed after the introduction of the Explore Tab as people can explore a lot on their own. The Following Tab became something of a nuisance when daughters had to endure seeing their father’s cheesy comments on an actresses’ Instagram posts or when people had to endure seeing the endless activities of a stranger they barely know.
Thankfully, Facebook, the owner of Instagram, understood that the Following Tab was not an asset but a liability and got rid of it. It is the next big thing they did after contemplating the removal of Facebook likes.
The removal of the Following Tab, a feed that shows the likes, follows, and comments of everyone’s friends on Instagram has already been implemented. From now on, the heart tab will only show a user his or her own activity.
Vishal Shah, Head of Product for Instagram shared with Buzzfeed that the Following Tab wasn’t being used frequently, and some people didn’t even know about its existence and use. For those who did know about it and used it, it led to some unwelcome surprises. He said, “People didn’t always know that their activity is surfacing. So, you have a case where it’s not serving the use case you built it for, but it’s also causing people to be surprised when their activity is showing up.”
Talking about the driving factor that led to the removal of Instagram’s Following Tab Shah said: “Simplicity was the driving factor.”
Instagram has been making many profound changes since the original founders Mike Krieger, and Kevin Systrom left the company last year. Reports said that they quit because they felt the app was being Facebookfied or changed to look like Facebook.
Instagram started testing a version of the app without the Following Tab in August, but the complete removal would be done sometime this week.
