Instagram caused an outrage among its users yesterday when it accidentally rolled out a new feature that changed how the newsfeed operates.
The Instagram feed is a sideways swipe now pic.twitter.com/kqPsUvDQ5t
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) December 27, 2018
Instead of vertically scrolling through posts in the Instagram newsfeed, the new rollout changed it into a horizontal scroll, where users will need to tap to advance through posts. Tapping right will lead users to the next post whereas tapping left will bring users back to the previous post, and tapping in the middle will do the same, which is liking the post. Besides that, there is also a progress bar to show users how far they’ve progressed through their newsfeed.
Sorry about that, this was supposed to be a very small test but we went broader than we anticipated.
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) December 27, 2018
Many users are taken aback by the new accidental change, and demanded that Instagram change it back. According to Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s head of Instagram, the rollout was meant to be a small test, and the company had accidentally tested it out on a wider number of users leading to the uproar. Within an hour, Instagram rolled back the update, so users are able to get back to their vertical scrolling.
Just one question… You have a beta program for these things on android. I am enrolled so I can test new features so I can inform developers if they are good or not. I never got this update. Instead you push this to normal users?? Fix your stuff up.
— Richard Rafaj (@RafajRichard) December 27, 2018
Mosseri also told users that they could restart the app if it’s still stuck at horizontal scrolling, and apologised for the sudden change. A user also tweeted to Mosseri, expressing her disappointment for not getting the update even though she’s in the beta program while normal users received the update.
@ instagram during those 0.2 seconds of the horizontal feed pic.twitter.com/ZyfKIHsOGI
— alex (@alexojovel) December 27, 2018
On the other hand, celebrities such as Ariana Grande and rapper Skepta are also not happy about the accidental rollout.
us: pls chronological timelines
insta: what? insta stories?
us: nonono chronological timelines
insta: did you mean IGTV
us: NO CHRONOLOGICAL TIMELINES
insta: ohhhh you want to scroll horizontally #instagramupdate— , , , , , (@triviastigma) December 27, 2018
Let’s hope this horizontal scrolling will not be coming in the future since many are unhappy about it. In the meantime, maybe Instagram should consider bringing back the chronological scrolling that was and still is desired by many.