Why Instagram Shouldn’t Have Ditched Guides 🥲
We could be living in a different social media timeline..but we’re not because Zuck ruins everything 🙄 Our Magnify Series 🔎 is back!
TLDR; Instagram discontinued their Guides feature, we think that was a mistake and we tell you why. 🪦
Remember Instagram Guides?? No??? You’re probably not the only one. Guides was a feature that Instagram released in May 2020, but for some reason they never promoted it to reach its full potential. 😫
Guides were collections of posts, places, or products that could be added to your profile. You could curate your own, or find them on other people’s profiles, as well as share them to your story.
Even though you may not have heard of them, Guides were introduced before reels (released in August 2020 just shortly after guides) subscriptions (released in July 2022) broadcast channels (released in February 2023), or Threads (released in July 2023). Guides had endless potential, but Instagram released more and more features (attempting to compete with TikTok’s massive popularity amidst ((JUMP SCARE!)) the height of the COVID pandemic) and Guides were neglected in promotions, and with people.
Guides worked pretty simply, allowing you to collect content already on Instagram (yours or someone else’s) so that you could show off anything that people might associate with you. Influencers could make Guides that contained their favorite products, fitness influencers could create little workout Guides, product based stores could easily create catalogs available on their profile with a few taps. With Instagram’s selling focused nature, it was a no-brainer. Use them to show off what you know, and (literally) sell your stuff.
Such a good idea in theory—but so very poorly executed (as are a lot of ideas that come from Meta), to a point where people almost don’t even know Guides existed.
Do you remember Instagram Guides?? 💭
In December 2023 Instagram killed Guides altogether, leaving the information in collections—a feature exclusive to US sellers. Instagram never even gave them a chance and tried to pivot to compete with TikTok rather than diversify so that both platforms could stay relevant. 🫠
Around that same time there was a rise of another app—one that quickly took over as The Place To Be. TikTok. 🎵
If you’re a TikToker of any capacity you know about playlists—and how easy they are to use.
One of the most creator and user friendly features on TikTok—the creator can put a group of videos in order to create a “playlist”, able to be watched from your profile, on auto play! This means TikTokers like ReesaTeesa, are able to put her 50+ videos from her series in a playlist that allows people to hear the story without interruptions. 😌
The appeal for creators AND viewers is obvious—an easy way for creators to put together their videos in an effortlessly binge-able way, and an even easier way for viewers to watch their content.
What does TikTok’s rise have to do with Instagram Guides? 🤔
Our point here is that Guides could’ve been Instagram’s version of playlists—if they had given it the proper attention and promotion. Instead of putting in time on what they had already created, they focused on creating more and more features and seeing what stuck, which ultimately led to the downfall of Guides.
With Instagram’s selling-based algorithm, it has a defined niche that they could’ve leaned into heavily with Guides, but instead they ditched it in an effort to be a (not so good) copy of TikTok. That’s Zuck for ya. 🫠
