Social media apps like Instagram, TikTok, and so on, are much more than just platforms for sharing images or videos. They are engineering marvels. At the foundation of their captivating user experience lies a blend of complex algorithms, advanced data processing techniques, and scalable infrastructure. This may be compared to a busy international airport buzzing 24/7. Just as airports need to efficiently manage millions of passengers, luggage, and flights without significant delays, these social media systems manage countless bytes of data every second to ensure that their user experience remains smooth and uninterrupted.
Behind each image or video, there are layers of decision-making processes determining its relevance to appear on your feed. In this blog, we will understand the machinery behind a social media app’s news feed, the challenges in the way of designing a successful one, and solutions for navigating those challenges efficiently.
Understanding The Backend of A Social Media App
I will explain the backend of a social media app using the analogy of a cafe where you’ve been a regular for years. Every time you enter, there is bustling activity attuned to bring you your preferred coffee in the overall ambience you associate with the particular cafe. With time, the cafe’s staff recognises you well enough to anticipate your needs and bring you your order at the earliest.
Just like the cafe anticipates your order, systems of platforms like Instagram learn from your past interactions. The platform takes note each time you frequently engage with a friend’s posts, follow new accounts, or show interest in certain topics. So, every time you open the app, it is already at work, predicting the content you’d love to see, ensuring your feed feels both personal and engaging.
For your order to come to you promptly and efficiently without you having to give repeated directions, an army of people work in sync to ensure a seamless flow of service. Similar to this, social media platforms are not powered by just one component. It is a synergy of multiple systems working in harmony.
The Hidden Machinery Behind A Social Media App’s News Feed
Let’s take a look at the individual components working in harmony behind a social media platform like Instagram to ensure every user on the platform finds it relevant to their own preferences.
Databases
These are like the storage rooms of the cafe, where all raw ingredients (or in the case of platforms like Instagram, photos, videos, comments, likes) are stored. Without these, there would be no content to show.
Algorithms
These are the skilled chefs and baristas of our metaphorical cafe. Just as a chef decides which ingredients to use for a dish, the algorithm determines which content is most relevant to you. It decides the order of posts in your feed, combining a mix of old friends and new discoveries.
Caching Systems
Think of caching systems as the quick-to-reach shelves in the cafe with commonly used items kept at an arm’s reach. Similarly, caching systems store frequently accessed data to deliver it quickly to the user without fetching it from the main storage every single time.
Thus, every component of a social media platform’s backend collaborates to ensure that every time you open the app, you are presented with a feed that is uniquely tailored to your needs, loads quickly, and always feels fresh and engaging.
Challenges in Building a News Feed
Tailoring user experiences for millions of users worldwide so that each user finds a unique version of the product for themselves brings with itself many challenges.
Let us examine those challenges in detail to get to their core and surmise the most viable solutions for them.
Personalization and Relevance
The vast amount of content available on social media can make it challenging to deliver a personalized feed that resonates with individual users’ preferences and behaviors. Pushing irrelevant content can reduce user engagement and satisfaction. For example, if a user shows interest in travel posts and frequently interacts with travel bloggers, the system should recognize this pattern and prioritize similar content on their feed. Conversely, if they start showing disinterest in certain types of content or profiles, the system should adapt accordingly and not provide irrelevant suggestions.
Volume of Data
Modern social media platforms have millions of active users, with each user potentially posting content, commenting, liking posts, and creating a colossal influx of data every second. In the event of a popular celebrity with 10 million followers posting a single photo, it needs to be made available to those 10 million users almost simultaneously, without affecting the user experience with sudden influx of activity.
Real-time Updates
Users expect instant updates from events around the world as they take place. Delaying such updates can disengage users as they might miss out on timely content like live videos or trending posts. For example, if there is a live event like the Oscars, users expect to see related content in real-time on their feed, not hours later.
Scalability
As the user base grows, the system should be able to handle the growth without compromising on speed and efficiency. When platforms like TikTok and Instagram launched, they had a user base of thousands. Now, with over a billion users, the backend systems have had to evolve and scale up to meet demands without users noticing a dip in performance.
Diverse Content Types
Users share a range of content, from photos, videos to stories and broadcasts. Accommodating different content types, each with its own set of challenges, is crucial. For example, video content, broadcasts require more bandwidth and storage than photos, demanding diverse handling. Failing to adhere to the demands of each content type can lead to poor user experience in the present day and age where seamless navigation across all apps is considered a given.
User Engagement
Balancing fresh content, ads, and older, yet unseen posts is crucial to retain user engagement. Poor curation can lead to users missing out on relevant posts from their close connections. For example, if a user constantly sees ads or posts from an influencer they do not engage with thoroughly, but misses posts from close friends, they might feel disconnected from the platform and eventually stop using it altogether.
Security and Privacy
Protecting user data and ensuring content security is paramount on social media platforms. With growing concerns about privacy and data misuse, platforms need to have stringent security measures in place. For example, if a user shares a private story with a select group of friends, ensuring that only those selected can view it is critical. Any breach in such settings can lead to user distrust and potential legal repercussions.
Multimedia Optimization
Different devices, internet speeds, and regions require optimized content delivery. Ensuring that videos and images load quickly across all scenarios enhances user experience. A user with a slower internet connection should still be able to view content, perhaps with lower resolution or optimized compression, so they remain engaged without frustrating load times.
Infrastructure Costs
Handling billions of interactions, posts, and real-time updates requires immense computational power and storage solutions. Managing these requirements while keeping costs in check is essential for the viability of social media platforms For example, storing high-resolution images and 4K videos from billions of posts demands extensive storage solutions. Social media platforms must carefully balance these factors to provide users with a seamless experience while keeping costs sustainable.
Potential Solutions For Curating A Relevant News Feed
Having looked at the major challenges in designing a relevant news feed, we will now explore potential solutions to navigate them and meet the ever-evolving demands of today’s digital age.
Sharded Databases
These are helpful for handling the enormous volumes of data. By dividing the database into smaller, more manageable pieces (shards), we can spread the data across multiple servers, ensuring smooth and consistent performance even with vast amounts of data.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Helpful in providing real-time updates and accommodating diverse content types, CDNs store cached versions of content in multiple geographical locations. This ensures that content, be it an image from a celebrity or a live Oscars video, is delivered to the user from the nearest location, reducing latency.
Microservices Architecture
For ensuring scalability and consistent performance, breaking the backend into smaller, independent services so that each can be scaled (increased or decreased in capacity) based on demand can be helpful to ensure success in the long-run.
Machine Learning and AI
For personalizing the user experience for each user to find the platform relevant, ML algorithms ensure that each user’s viewing and browsing habits are thoroughly analyzed. ML algorithms can learn from user behaviors and preferences to curate a feed that is both engaging and relevant.
End-to-End Encryption (E2E)
E2E ensures that only the sender and receiver access the content, protecting it from potential breaches or unauthorized access and ensuring greater security amidst increasing privacy concerns for popular social media apps.
Dynamic Content Adaptation
This system facilitates multimedia optimization by detecting the user’s device and connection speed, serving content in the optimal resolution and format.
Hybrid Cloud Solutions
Using a mix of on-premises and cloud storage/computing solutions with IaC and Kubernetes-based solutions for microservices architecture offers a number of benefits and helps social media platforms optimize costs while ensuring high availability and performance.
Final Thoughts
The news feeds of social media apps like TikTok and Instagram look simple and elegant on the surface, but are underpinned by a maze of algorithms and systems. The platforms’ genius is not just in its technical prowess but in the harmony of its design – an orchestra of code, infrastructure, and user-centric design principles. They bear testimony to the potential of technology to create seamless and life-like experiences when thoroughly intertwined with user needs.
