

Instagram’s pivot into complexity - pascal07
http://www.elezea.com/2013/06/instagram-video-complexity/

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amchenault
This post makes some interesting points about the additional complexities the
Instagram team will face as they integrate video uploading, editing, and
consuming into their users' activity streams.

I think there are some interesting reasons why Instagram needed to do this
that are worth noting. Instagram's high level of user engagement is in my
experience predicated on the way it captures (1) beautiful experiences that
are (2) relevant to me (3) without the clutter of posts that are of any other
category. Facebook and Twitter are both fantastic and I use them all the time,
but Instagram is the first and last app I use every day because it is a purely
positive experience to consume.

I think there is a certain saturation point where there is a maximum number of
social apps that a person can afford to be engaged with at any point. While
the idea of Vine was appealing to me, I have resisted it because I just don't
have room to add another app into my consumption patterns. Same thing goes for
Path.

So the reason I think Instagram did the right thing in adding video, and in
fact had to, is that an app like Vine is really an extension of the same
concept that Instagram did with photos. If I want to have that kind of
experience, I would prefer to do it all in one place, and so I think there was
always going to be a gravitational pull for one app to win in both of those
categories.

Vine is great, and I have no doubt they will continue to see success in the
myriad of other ways people use it that are dissimilar from Instagram. But I
think Instagram did the right and necessary thing in taking on this added
complexity.

