Instagram Channels: dear Instagram, we (still) didn’t ask to subscribe

You’d think they would have learned their lesson by now.

I’ve been meaning to get back to writing for a while now, but–for whatever reason–I haven’t stumbled upon the right catalyst to push me to sit down to write. Turns out, the motivation I needed would be broadcast right into my feed.

Last night I was scrolling through Instagram looking to catch up on the various group chats chiming off with memes, headlines, and the usual banter. Up pops my favorite* founder, Zuck.

*I should interject, I’m far from enamored by the man, but I like to be informed on the social platform I spend the majority of my time on.

“Launching Instagram Channels! Join my channel: Meta Channel (link in bio)”

–written across the screen. Mark is front and center, announcing Instagram’s newest feature, “Channels.”

“Hey everyone, we just launched Instagram Channels. It’s a new way for you to get chats from your favorite creators. I just launched a channel it’s called Meta Channel, it’s the place where I’m going to be announcing meta product and technology news first before anywhere else. So if you wanna get that, just subscribe. Link in bio. Alright, enjoy.”

Surprise!

I wasn’t surprised to see Instagram rolling out another copycat feature that has nothing to do with pictures–similar to their latest “Notes” feature–but I was surprised when I clicked on Zuck’s profile to discover there was no link in bio.

Initially I laughed, thinking it was a somewhat large oversight by Instagram–especially with Zuck’s audience of 10.6 million. Next, I assumed I was between versions of the platform, maybe I needed an update. But then I noticed the notifications icon in the top right of my screen had a check mark inside of it–unusual only because I hate notifications and am very selective about when I turn them on.

Surprise! I’ve been subscribed to the Meta Channel. Ironically, I never received any sort of notification letting me know I had been subscribed in the first place, but I am definitely subscribed.

After a moment of confusion, I asked one of my brothers–who doesn’t follow the Zuck–to follow the account. Sure enough, once he followed the account, he was subscribed as well.

It could be a coincidence, we both have the same iPhone, maybe it’s an update thing? So I checked again with my other brother–who also doesn’t follow the Zuck, but does have an android. We recorded the screen, same as before. Congratulations, you’ve been subscribed!

I’d say we’re in a bad re-run of Punk’d, but it was consistent.

Never miss an update.

By this point, Zuck’s link in bio had finally appeared. Clicking in I was met with a pop-up: “Never miss an update with broadcast channels,” then a button labeled “I understand.” (I’m not sure I actually understand what I agreed to when I clicked the button, hopefully nothing, but you never know these days.) After agreeing I was brought to the “Meta Channel” where I was greeted with an Instagram-looking chat, minus the chat.

“Never miss an update from zuck. Only zuck can message, but you can read, react and vote in polls.”

Telegram, minus the chat.

Twitter, minus threads.

Facebook, before it became Facebook.

Considerations.

I initially considered talking about how this felt suspiciously like a violation of the CAN-SPAM Act–the United States’ regulatory standards designed “to protect consumers and businesses from unwanted electronic mail messages on wireless devices such as mobile phones.”–regulation that is “subject to penalties of up to $50,120” per infraction (with over 100 million active users in the US, you do the math).

I also considered talking about the case to be heard by the US Supreme Court this next week, where SCOTUS will be examining Section 230 to answer the question, “Are recommendations of content the same as display of content?”–addressing the long-standing question of whether or not social platforms are responsible for the recommendation algorithms prescribing content to users–and how it’s not a great look for Instagram to start automatically signing people up for something they didn’t ask for.

I even thought it would be fun to reminisce about Apple’s noble attempt to convince everyone that U2’s 2014 album ‘Songs of Innocence’ was the only thing they needed on their iPhone and iPod–which it clearly wasn’t.

I should say, I don’t know whether or not you’ll be automatically subscribed as each of the “select creators” that you happen to follow create their own “Channel”.

For both our sake, I hope not. Otherwise we’re back in 2017, scrambling to turn off our Snapchat location when they surprised the world with their new “Snap Map” feature–broadcasting our exact location to each of our friends.

You’d think we’d learned our lesson about opt-in vs opt-out, and I had hope for Meta to figure it out, but I guess they haven’t yet.

Instead, I’m simply disappointed.

Closing thoughts.

We’re living in a time where the standard social media user is clearly fed up with an overload of emails, text messages, notifications, and subscriptions they didn’t know they were signed up for. I could go and find some article that validates that, but it’s something I’m confident we all know to be true in one form or another.

While I see that legacy social media platforms are pushing to stay relevant, platforms like Instagram can’t afford to make simple mistakes as important as this. IG Channels might be a huge hit, but overlooking these key user interactions–like auto-subscribing anyone to anything ever–will only continue to degrade the little trust that still remains.

I am an avid instagram user. I have been since senior year of high school when my friends convinced me I needed an instagram account. They told me it was the next big platform, and they weren’t wrong.

Now it makes me sad to think that 11 years later I’m writing a piece like this about a platform that I had so much love for.

Dear Instagram,
Please do better.

Sincerely, Christian.

As a digital product designer working in the field today, my goal is seek to understand how we’ve ended up where we have and begin to look for a solution. If no solution exists, at least we’ve taken note, not only as designers, but hopefully as people who are all unavoidably involved and — in turn — have a responsibility to do something about it.

I’ve written more about the issues surrounding mental health, user experience, and social media in previous articles like, What’s clever — and terrifying — about Instagram’s latest update, or The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance, and about the importance of understanding psychology in design in my article, Like American Children in the British Parlaiment.

This is all a work in progress of course, but if you think I’ve missed something, please let me know, always looking for more.