Everyone copies the core feed mechanic, but no one actually builds good video editing/creation tools into their app, which is actually why Tiktok took off.
If you don't make it easy for your users to post good content, of course you're going to make a boring app.
This is largely due to the fact that "Reels" is an add-on feature to the rest of the Instagram app, rather than its primary focus like it is on TikTok.
TikTok was built around this flow. Its community culture expects the content to be in a certain format and will self-moderate via metrics such as likes, comments, views. The UX of the app itself is built around this content. There are no distractions.
Instagram on the other hand has a very different community, with different culture and expectations. The content creators on Instagram may not be as familiar with the content that is conducive to the Reels format. The UX of Reels on insta is also an add-on feature. You're not opening instagram to interact with Reels, you have different intentions. Whereas when you open TikTok, you are there for one reason, so the app is built around that one flow.
You should also see the pathetic copycat feature YouTube has created called the shorts. Facebook's attempt with short videos and reels is not much better either.
Why does every company feel the urge to copy this and also fail so badly at this
YouTube shorts broke my workflow. My son likes to make short videos of himself singing songs or doing funny things and then we watch them on the TV together. YouTube retroactively made all of our videos “shorts” and then says you can’t cast shorts to the TV.
Are youtube shorts a failure? They seem to be immensely popular in terms of views/engagement.
Reminds me of how people would deride Instagram for copying Snapchat stories, yet far more people probably use Instagram stories than snapchat and are perfectly satisfied with the UX despite it being a blatant copycat.
>Are youtube shorts a failure? They seem to be immensely popular in terms of views/engagement.
I just think that's only because "the algorithm" prioritizes shorts at the moment to try and push them and make folks even bother making them. Once YouTube starts acting neutral towards them I don't think they'll hold up.
I've never come across a short intentionally and after seeing quite a few I haven't tried to find further ones (and outside of mobile it's quite difficult to do so).
That said of course, I'm probably not in the demographic shorts plays to either.
Because sometimes it works. Instagram stories being a great example of this. Though once the functionality of an app gets diluted enough, like with Instagram and Facebook, each additional feature becomes less competitive.
So I installed tik tok for the first time yesterday. I don’t get how it’s supposed to show me things I like. It’s mostly hot girls doing makeup or teens running from the police and stuff. How do I get it to show me things I like? How does it discover my niche interests.
I mean it's mostly a kids dancing app, so that's mostly what you get by default.
Follow Tom Silva, Mr Barricade, Soft Pourn, Woodshopdiaries, Scott Hanselman. This will get you a bunch of interesting content. It might not be what you want, but it's definitely not makeup tutorials.
- terribly redundant content (as in, I see multiple times the exact same content from different accounts)
- content ripped off and reposted from original creators by spam accounts
- complete destruction of the original Instagram app to try to force-feed Reels down your throat
TikTok looks so simple when you use it because everything just works. Using Reels makes you realise all the ways there are to fuck it up!