Pinstagram? Instagram code reveals Public Collections feature
Pinstagram? Instagram code reveals Public
Collections feature
Josh Constine
Instagram is
threatening to attack Pinterest just as it files to go public the same way the
Facebook-owned app did to Snapchat. Code buried in Instagram for Android shows
the company has prototyped an option to create public “Collections” to which
multiple users can contribute. Instagram
launched private Collections two years ago to let you Save and
organize your favorite feed posts. But by allowing users to make Collections
public, Instagram would become a direct competitor to Pinterest.
Instagram public Collections could spark a
new medium of content curation. People could use the feature to bundle together
their favorite memes, travel destinations, fashion items or art. That could cut
down on unconsented content stealing that’s caused backlash against meme
“curators” like F*ckJerry by giving an alternative to screenshotting and
reposting other people’s stuff. Instead of just representing yourself with your
own content, you could express your identity through the things you love — even
if you didn’t photograph them yourself. And if that sounds familiar, you’ll
understand why this could be problematic for Pinterest’s
upcoming $12 billion IPO.
specialist Jane Manchun
Wong. It’s not available to the public, but from the Instagram for
Android code, she was able to generate a screenshot of the prototype. It shows
the ability to toggle on public visibility for a Collection, and tag
contributors who can also add to the Collection. Previously, Collections was
always a private, solo feature for organizing your bookmarks gathered through
the Instagram Save
feature Instagram launched in late 2016.
Instagram told TechCrunch “we’re not
testing this,” which is its standard response to press inquiries about products
that aren’t available to public users, but that are in internal development. It
could be a while until Instagram does start experimenting publicly with the
feature and longer before a launch, and the company could always scrap the
option. But it’s a sensible way to give users more to do and share on
Instagram, and the prototype gives insight into the app’s strategy. Facebook
launched its own Pinterest -style shareable
Sets in 2017 and launched sharable
Collections in December.
Currently there’s nothing in the Instagram
code about users being able to follow each other’s Collections, but that would
seem like a logical and powerful next step. Instagrammers can already follow
hashtags to see new posts with them routed to their feed. Offering a similar
way to follow Collections could turn people into star curators rather than star
creators without the need to rip off anyone’s content. Speaking of infuencers,
Wong also spotted Instagram
prototyping IGTV picture-in-picture, so you could keep watching a
long-form video after closing the app and navigating the rest of your phone.
It’s worth remembering that Instagram
launched its copycat of Snapchat Stories just six months before Snap went
public. As we predicted, that reduced
Snapchat’s growth rate by 88 percent. Two years later, Snapchat isn’t
growing at all, and its share price is at just a third of its peak.
With more than 1 billion monthly and 500 million daily users, Instagram is four times the
size of Pinterest. Instagram loyalists might find it’s easier to use
the “good enough” public Collections feature where they already have a social
graph than try to build a following from scratch on Pinterest.
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