Instagram briefly tests horizontal scrolling, chucks it after users complain

Instagram users were taken by surprise on Thursday when the app suddenly started responding to swipes horizontally instead of vertically. This was set right after some time and the vertical feed was restored. Users were not sure if it was a bug and many of them immediately took to Twitter and posted their comments, vehemently opposing the change. It later turned out that Instagram had indeed tried the redesign of the app. But what was supposed to be limited to a few users spread to a large body of users resulting in this severe backlash. They called it a test feed. But Instagram would have quickly realized that it was not acceptable to the users.

The Stories feature on Instagram sports a horizontal feed and customers seem to have no issues with that. Possibly, customers get used to a certain way or style of browsing an app and will resist changing it just for the sake of changing the look and feel of the app. There are over a billion users, worldwide, of Instagram, a Facebook-owned company. The photo and video sharing platform can hardly afford to upset their users with such changes.

Social media went berserk with a #InstagramUpdate hashtag being created and thousands commenting and forwarding and liking them. Immediate comparisons got made with rival Snapchat’s attempt at changing the design of its interface and there again, it is quite unpopular with the users. There are probably a large number of users who use both Instagram and Snapchat to share their videos and images.

Finally, the matter was put to rest by a tweet by Instagram on its own handle which read, "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".