Instagram rolled out experimental horizontal feed to users and got trolled instantly

Instagram users woke up to a surprising change to the app’s layout on Thursday – with the familiar vertical scroll of its feed changed abruptly sideways – literally so. The instinctive slide of the finger upwards did very little to move from one post to the next, as users had to instead swipe between them like some dating apps we’ve grown familiar with. Why, Instagram?

That seemed to be the resonant response from users, who took to Twitter and Instagram to express their disdain.

What are you doing Instagram?!? https://t.co/HEXR7ZActW #Instagramupdate

— Mashable (@mashable) December 27, 2018

me after trying to swipe through the #instagramupdate #newinstagram pic.twitter.com/jH0sbhyTiZ

— Mr. Wavy Boy (@bangbwavy) December 27, 2018

The change wasn’t rolled out to all users, though and seems to have largely reached North America based on online reactions. Suffice it to say it reached (and bugged) enough people for Instagram to release an official statement, attributing the whole episode to 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

Following their statement, Instagram was shown a hypothetical box of sand to bury its head under in another flood of responses that pointed out the feature was far too well-designed, functional and instructive to be a bug. The new Instagram chief Adam Mosseri was quick to jump in and clarify that the change was a test on a small number of users to see how the change would be received, and reached a lot more people that they expected it to. 

Looks like you got your answer, Adam. We’ve swiped left. 2018 has been an eventful year and here’s our comprehensive list of **year ender stories.**