Instagram released a new "side scroll" update by mistake and the internet hated it

27 December 2018, 17:39

By Katie Louise Smith

The brief Instagram update which involved users 'swiping' instead of 'scrolling' was later revealed to have been a mistake by Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri.

Just when you thought Tumblr and the big porn ban of 2018 had secured the bag for 'Worst Social Media Update' of the year, Instagram almost gave it a run for its money after revealing a glimpse of the new interface update that completely changes how the app works - and not in a good way, judging by the reaction from social media.

For a while now, users of the app have been getting increasingly annoyed at the algorithm's refusal to show a chronological feed and now, Instagram have gone and made even more of a drastic change. On December 27, the social media network rolled out a new app update that changed the way we view the timeline, effectively removing all aspects of the scrolling feed that we're used to.

Yep, instead of scrolling, users were told to swipe and tap to see the next post, just like you would when you're viewing someone's story. An hour or so later, The Independent reported that the update was a 'test' and was rolled out by mistake.

The new update was given to users on Thursday but not everyone seemed to have experienced it. It was later revealed in a tweet by Instagram's CEO Adam Mosseri that it was meant "to be a very small test but went broader than [they] anticipated."

For those who were given the new update, here's what it looked like: When you open the app, a notice pops up explaining how to use the new interface. A screen saying: "Introducing a New Way to Move Through Posts," appears, telling users to tap through to see the posts in their timeline.

Some users also managed to record how the new interface works. Here's what the side-ways, no endless timeline swiping feature looks like:

As we all know thanks to previous app updates, social media users do not welcome change to the interfaces of their favourite apps well at all and despite it's short lived appearance, it looks like this update wasn't well received either. The update was met with huge backlash and has already sparked a ton of savage memes.

For now, the update remains just a test (according to Mosseri) and will not be rolled out as an official update yet. If you are still seeing the new interface, simply close and restart your app and the old layout should be back.

A spokesperson for Instagram told BuzzFeed News “this was caused by a bug that we quickly fixed.”

“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.”

WHEW! As you were, everyone!