Instagram 'accidentally' went horizontal, freaking several people out
What's the story
Instagram is famous for some really cool features, but last night, the photo-sharing platform went haywire and started turning horizontal. Yes, weirdly enough, several users across the globe found that their Instagram feed, which could be scrolled vertically, was moving from left to right as one browsed through Stories. The issue freaked people out but has now been fixed by the company. Here's more.
Issue
Instagram switching to horizontal mode
When the orientation went live, users were greeted with a message saying a 'new way to move through posts'. On tapping, they found the horizontal main feed, where they could view one post at a time and had to tap/scroll to the right to see the next post. Basically, they turned the whole feed into a giant Story bar.
Twitter Post
Here's the weird horizontal feed
Instagram just removed the vertical feed for a horizontal scroll and it might be the worst change of 2018 #uxdesign #ux #appdesign #UIUXDesign pic.twitter.com/N4CPAqyqL0
— Joey Lacus (@JoeyLacus) December 27, 2018
Information
Also, the 'Stories' section was tweaked
In the same change, the 'Stories' bar was also tweaked and could be accessed by swiping down from the top instead of scrolling all the way to the top of the app.
Reason
However, all of this was part of an accidental 'test'
When the redesigned feed appeared, users thought it was a permanent change and started taking to Twitter to report how annoying it was to scroll horizontally. However, after a few minutes, the standard 'vertically-scrolling' feed started appearing, leading users to think it was a test. Then, Instagram's head Adam Mosseri clarified that it was a 'small test' that went broader than intended 'by accident'.
Twitter Post
Instagram, however, blamed it on a bug
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.
— Instagram (@instagram) December 27, 2018
Possibilities
We have standard feed view, for now
Instagram may have returned to the standard feed, but the accidental roll-out shows that the company is taking horizontal feed seriously. Back in October, we heard about a similar move for the 'Explore' section and Instagram claimed that it wasn't considering something like that for the main feed. But now, it seems like a possibility, which could come to life in future.