This morning, Instagram appeared to be rolling out–or at least testing–a new feed that could have you tapping and swiping rather than scrolling. A number of users reported seeing a horizontal feed that, like Instagram Stories, would require you to tap or swipe through posts.
https://twitter.com/TaylorLorenz/status/1078312647391674369
It looked like the new feed would display one post at a time and include a scroll bar at the top to indicate how far you have swiped. The design would presumably make it more difficult to scroll mindlessly through your Instagram feed—though countless users seem to have no problem swiping mindlessly through Instagram Stories.
In any case, you won’t have to weather a vertical feed just yet–or at all. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri has since clarified that Instagram accidentally rolled out the test to more users than intended.
https://twitter.com/mosseri/status/1078322176070021121
Instagram’s statement: “Due to a bug, some users saw a change to the way their feed appears today. We quickly fixed the issue and feed is back to normal. We apologize for any confusion.” It’s still testing tap-to-advance with a small % of users in Explore.
— Josh Constine 📶🔥 (@JoshConstine) December 27, 2018
But many Twitter users, as they are wont to do, had opinions on the potential change.
https://twitter.com/TaylorLorenz/status/1078314213246988289
https://twitter.com/PaulGriffin/status/1078308120823296001
Why kill the feed? In part people are tired of it on Instagram and FB (though some of this is algorithmic overkill IMHO). Also, easier and bolder ad environment = more $. Will that mean better user experience? Probably not.
— Noah Mallin (@NoahMallin) December 27, 2018
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📍a chronological feed option |
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📍making unnecessary updates— Shahbaz Khan (@ShahbazMKhan) December 27, 2018
https://twitter.com/AlexJamesFitz/status/1078310656045125632
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