Tumblr’s constructing a TikTok impressed feed in bid to develop its consumer base

Tumblr could possibly be the most recent platform to borrow from TikTok’s playbook. The corporate is planning a significant revamp of its platform that may convey algorithmic suggestions to customers’ feeds, in response to revealed on the Tumblr Employees weblog.

The memo is notably frank in regards to the causes for the upcoming modifications and what it describes as Tumblr’s present shortcomings. “The underlying downside is that Tumblr shouldn’t be straightforward to make use of,” the corporate writes. “Being a 15-year-old model is hard as a result of the model carries the luggage of an individual’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr.”

Whereas Tumblr doesn’t present precise particulars about new options, it presents some fairly massive hints about what’s to come back. The corporate says that one in every of its major objectives can be to “ship nice content material every time the app is opened” and refers to its present “following” feed as “outdated.”

To deal with this, the Automattic-owned platform says it’s working to “enhance our algorithmic rating capabilities throughout all feeds” and “make it simpler for customers to know the place the colourful communities on Tumblr are.” The corporate additionally notes that constructing extra creator-friendly options, together with enhancements to the way in which replies and reblogs work, will even be key to attracting new customers.

“Being a brand new creator on Tumblr might be intimidating, with a excessive probability of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations with out receiving engagement or suggestions,” the corporate writes. “The shortage of suggestions stems from the outdated resolution to solely present content material from adopted blogs on the primary dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle the place standard blogs proceed to realize extra visibility on the expense of serving to new creators.”

Taken collectively, the modifications Tumblr is describing sound so much like TikTok (and even Instagram): algorithmic suggestions in customers’ major feeds, creator-friendly options that encourage sharing, and extra streamlined commenting and dialog instruments. As a method, that each one could sound fairly simple in 2023, when customers more and more anticipate these sorts of options from social platforms anyway. However contemplating Tumblr’s core interface hasn’t modified that a lot in its decade and a half of existence, the brand new course may convey vital modifications to the general dynamics of the platform.

The approaching redesign isn’t the one means Automated has tried to breathe new life into the platform it acquired The corporate has additionally experimented with subscriptions and different paid options, introducing Put up+ , although there was in opposition to the function from longtime customers. Extra just lately, the corporate started promoting “fully ineffective” to customers quickly after Elon Musk’s botched rollout of Twitter’s new paid verification.