Some people logged into Instagram on Thursday to an unwelcome surprise: Their vertical scrolling through images had disappeared.
It was all part of a test change Instagram has been considering that would do away with the up-and-down swipe that’s become the standard way we practically scroll through anything in the modern age. Instead, Instagram’s been thinking about having people scroll side to side or tap to go through their feed.
Adam Mosseri, who heads Instagram, tweeted that this newest change wasn’t intended to be tested on so many people.
Sorry about that, this was supposed to be a very small test but we went broader than we anticipated. 😬
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri)
Instagram has tested these types of changes in the past as part of a broader effort for the Facebook-owned social network to draw in more people and to get its users to interact with the app more often. The app counts more than a billion people who log in each month, making it one of the largest social networks on the planet, behind Facebook itself, which counts more than 2 billion people.
Regardless of Instagram’s intentions this time around, the whole experience caused quite a stir, with people taking to Twitter to complain about how confusing everything had become.
The Instagram feed is sideways now and I can’t figure out how to post to my Story! They took away the swipe left interaction pic.twitter.com/Z5oLaIcGvC
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz)
Instagram must’ve been fuckin drunk when they released this update… I don’t wanna swipe thru instaposts SORRY
— nicholas (@NICH0LASST3WART)
Us: Bring back chronological order Instagram!
IG: Now you can swipe through your TL
Us: pic.twitter.com/bCClokTLz7
— Shellz Andretti (@theeshellzg)
The bottom line is that you probably shouldn’t screw with people’s Instagram during the holidays.