Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#231

Post by rsa25519 » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 8:46 PM UTC

rattray wrote: post #197

nilkn wrote: post #143

Reels isn’t going to compete with TikTok in any real way for a few simple reasons. First and foremost, as a non-Instagram user, I flat-out can’t use it. A while back, when I was curious about TikTok, I downloaded it and was instantly swiping through a video feed that was already getting customized for me. I downloaded Instagram this morning and was presented with a wall to create an account. Nope. Second, TikTok is n…

> Young people want to use the newest social app that old people haven’t yet infiltrated. There are actually plenty of people over 30 on TikTok FWIW. I definitely agree that TikTok's no-login-wall NUX was wonderful. You can even watch on a laptop without logging in.

> There are actually plenty of people over 30 on TikTok FWIW.

And the beauty of TikTok is that's okay. People over 30 can join the app without disrupting my feed of age-relevant content. This is unlike a lot of other social networks (e.g. Reddit) where content is shows from outside my social graph

Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#232

Post by rattray » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 8:49 PM UTC

rsa25519 wrote: post #231

rattray wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Young people want to use the newest social app that old people haven’t yet infiltrated. There are actually plenty of people over 30 on TikTok FWIW. I definitely agree that TikTok's no-login-wall NUX was wonderful. You can even watch on a laptop without logging in.

> There are actually plenty of people over 30 on TikTok FWIW. And the beauty of TikTok is that's okay. People over 30 can join the app without disrupting my feed of age-relevant content. This is unlike a lot of other social networks (e.g. Reddit) where content is shows from outside my social graph

Yeah, totally – I love that 90% of the time, I have a teenager-free TikTok experience, and most of what I see is interesting to me. But if I want to see what's hip with the kids or whatever, I can always just open up TikTok in a logged-out state and see the /r/all equivalent.

Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#233

Post by carlosdp » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 8:52 PM UTC

distrill wrote: post #129

carlosdp wrote: post #43

> Reels' video distribution algorithm will resemble TikTok's: users will see the most popular videos at the moment, rather than a selection tailored to their individual profile. That's not how TikTok works, the feed is really good at tailoring to the stuff you actually like to watch. It's a big part of why it's so popular. > Reels differs from TikTok thanks to Instagram's augmented reality effects, which let users ov…

> That's not how TikTok works, the feed is really good at tailoring to the stuff you actually like to watch I think the author here is differentiating on the pool of available videos to show you. TikTok will show you anything (that fits your profile) from any user, which is markedly different from just showing you content from your social graph.

They are comparing it to Reels, which also shows you content primarily not on your social graph.

Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#234

Post by rampant_ai » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 8:53 PM UTC

rjkennedy98 wrote: post #193

rsynnott wrote: post #156

How to appeal to Gen Z; name the thing after a form of video playback that was totally obsolete before any of them were born.

Can't tell if the OP is being sarcastic. Just want to point out that "Tik Tok" is the sound an analog clock makes - which is also obsolete technology - except for the odd grandfather clock.

It's closer to the sound of a metronome, which is pretty fitting and likely where the name originated.

Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#235

Post by Rompect » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 8:53 PM UTC

mcbutterbunz wrote: post #45

keiferski wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once upon a time it was quite elegant. Then, like everything Facebook acquires, it grew into a bloated "why not?" monster.

IMO, its elegance came from its simplicity. It did one thing and it did it well. There is an ever growing demand for new features, not necessarily from users, to fend off rivals and to stay relevant and exciting. As with a lot of popular apps and services, it ends up bloated, trying to offer everything to everyone and satisfying no one.

> It did one thing and it did it well.

Except it didn't, the photo quality on Instagram is really bad because of compression and it is not possible to share actual good pictures because of that.

Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#236

Post by chishaku » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 8:53 PM UTC

derivagral wrote: post #72

carlosdp wrote: post #43

> Reels' video distribution algorithm will resemble TikTok's: users will see the most popular videos at the moment, rather than a selection tailored to their individual profile. That's not how TikTok works, the feed is really good at tailoring to the stuff you actually like to watch. It's a big part of why it's so popular. > Reels differs from TikTok thanks to Instagram's augmented reality effects, which let users ov…

Whenever finding stuff like this, I always wonder: do the authors know, and expect their audience doesn't? do the authors not know, and neither does the audience? I get the "you know your own field better than the writer" effect, but a very large group of people use and at least sort of know how TikTok works, right?

The average Axios reader does not use TikTok and the average Axios reporter probably doesn't either.

Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#237

Post by Rompect » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 9:03 PM UTC

staycoolboy wrote: post #127

baby wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s what they said about Snapchat

What is the status of snapchat? Does it still exist? Does anyone use it? How do they split time between TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and the other half-dozen platforms?

As a young(er) gen Z dude, I have no clue.

Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#238

Post by razster » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 9:06 PM UTC

carlosdp wrote: post #43

> Reels' video distribution algorithm will resemble TikTok's: users will see the most popular videos at the moment, rather than a selection tailored to their individual profile. That's not how TikTok works, the feed is really good at tailoring to the stuff you actually like to watch. It's a big part of why it's so popular. > Reels differs from TikTok thanks to Instagram's augmented reality effects, which let users ov…

I dislike Reel already. I follow wood working, RC cars, and metal fab/3D printing/CNC. Now when I browse it's nothing but women jumping around and showing off their clothes... WTH!? So I start saying, not interested to all of that, still spams me with it.

Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#239

Post by dragonwriter » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 9:10 PM UTC

derivagral wrote: post #72

carlosdp wrote: post #43

> Reels' video distribution algorithm will resemble TikTok's: users will see the most popular videos at the moment, rather than a selection tailored to their individual profile. That's not how TikTok works, the feed is really good at tailoring to the stuff you actually like to watch. It's a big part of why it's so popular. > Reels differs from TikTok thanks to Instagram's augmented reality effects, which let users ov…

Whenever finding stuff like this, I always wonder: do the authors know, and expect their audience doesn't? do the authors not know, and neither does the audience? I get the "you know your own field better than the writer" effect, but a very large group of people use and at least sort of know how TikTok works, right?

> Whenever finding stuff like this, I always wonder: do the authors know, and expect their audience doesn't?

Do you mean the superficial author of the piece or the author of the PR material they are regurgitating?

My guess is someone involved with the latter function knows what is going on in the market and is deliberately being deceptive (but probably not outright lying, the release itself probably doesn't claim that TikTok lacks the described features though it is probably written in a way which gives that impression), the former may or may not know, but probably doesn't care; the better a stenographer they are the more access they get.

Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#240

Post by BraveKenny » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 9:14 PM UTC

nilkn wrote: post #143

Reels isn’t going to compete with TikTok in any real way for a few simple reasons. First and foremost, as a non-Instagram user, I flat-out can’t use it. A while back, when I was curious about TikTok, I downloaded it and was instantly swiping through a video feed that was already getting customized for me. I downloaded Instagram this morning and was presented with a wall to create an account. Nope. Second, TikTok is n…

> A while back, when I was curious about TikTok, I downloaded it and was instantly swiping through a video feed that was already getting customized for me.

Has this been definitely proven though? I tried finding evidence of whether TikTok tailors content for unregistered users (based on their location/device for example), but so far, I could not find a page that would even clearly ask that question. Every article about the algorithm I have read only considers registered users...