SALT LAKE CITY — Instagram briefly changed the structure of its feed and the internet freaked out.
What's going on: On Thursday morning, Instagram’s feed went from the typical vertical scroll style to, well, horizontal.
Much like Instagram Stories, the new feed required users to tap on the right or left side of the screen to see the new post, according to TechCrunch.
“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,” a spokesman told TechCrunch.
See an example below:
Here’s the deal: Instagram changed its feed back to normal after conducting the short test.
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram and former head of the news feed specifically, said on Twitter that the update “was supposed to be a very small test but we went broader than we anticipated.”
The internet did not like the brief update.
Return?: According to TechCrunch, Instagram has been testing the feed for a while. And it could make a return.
- “It’s possible that Instagram could still bring tap-to-advance to the main feed in the future,” TechCrunch reported. “But given how angry the responses were, it might now think twice unless the data show the change makes people spend a lot more time in the app.”
Bigger picture: Tech companies often push out unpopular updates since they think people will use their apps more, according to Recode.
Not addressed: Instagram users have long requested the app restore its chronological news feed, which shows the newest posts first. But, as I reported, this hasn’t happened yet.