Will Instagram suffer from Feature Fatigue?

The year is 2010, a new photo sharing app launches. 10 years later that same app lets you post videos, share stories, send messages, make video calls, go live and now make tiktoks. Are all these new features enhancing the user experience or will instagram suffer from feature fatigue?

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2010/09/20/instagram/

If you are an early user of Instagram you are probably familiar with simple photo sharing app that it was. I started using Instagram in 2013. To me Instagram initially was a platform that lets you share your photos and some short videos. But if you are a recent Instagram user, here's a short look at the evolution of instagram.

As you can see the app has come a long in the past 10 years. It's transformed into this complex app compared to its simpler roots. Hearing about the release of reels last week, couple of things were on my mind.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

1/ Paradox of choice:

The paradox choice means that the more choices we have, the less happy we are with the choices that we make. If we were to apply this concept to an application user experience, it just might be that the more options a product offers, the less satisfied users will be. With all the new features Instagram offers, it might get overwhelming for some. I personally don't prefer too many choices or options. This mindset I have grown is thanks to being a minimalist. I believe the less an app does, the more efficiently it does it and the more easy it is to use. But that is just from my point of view.

Most people I believe do enjoy the features and that is why the app has been growing bigger and bigger. But where does Instagram stop with the features? Does it keep on adding a new feature every-time a rival app starts something new? I believe sooner or later this paradox of choice will start hurting its users. A lot of photographers I know used to love the initial vibe from Instagram. A platform for photos. But now it's hard to describe what instagram is.

2/ Feature Fatigue:

Feature Fatigue is a phenomenon from a 2005 study described by the following statement:

“Because consumers give more weight to capability and less weight to usability before use than after use, they tend to choose overly complex products that do not maximize their satisfaction when they use them.”

In simple terms, it is when consumers are overwhelmed by the availability of features that they no longer find value from the product in the long run. There has been a few researches done about feature fatigue. I will put the ones I read at the bottom of this post. Most of the research focuses on physical products. But I believe sooner or later there will be more research on apps too.

The thing about Instagram is that the initial users who signed up for the app did it mostly for the capability of sharing photos. At present we have a plethora of features to use. The thing that Instagram needs to beware of is that one feature doesn't get in the way of the other. This they have done pretty well so far. For example: Unless you post videos to IGTV or Reels you won'T have that tab on your app. So the people who want to avoid these features can easily do it. At present the reels can be viewed in the search section. That is a nice way to let people avoid reels and enjoy their original feed.

I believe feature fatigue might become an issue in the future if Instagram lets these new features become a barrier to their user experience. The user experiences of users who just use Instagram to post photos and view other peoples photos. As long as it doesn't take away from that experience I believe it should be fine.

I would love to know what you guys think about this new addition to Instagram. Personally I don't like Instagram just copying other apps to add features to its app. At first it was snapchat and now tiktok. Do you think Instagram should continue doing this? Are you still using instagram? Let me know.

I read the following about feature fatigue:

https://northernexpenditure.com/feature-fatigue-simple-is-better/
https://hbr.org/2006/02/defeating-feature-fatigue
https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2014/03/beware-of-feature-overload-a-case-study.php