What on earth was that Instagram update?
Instagram introduced an update Thursday morning that forced users to tap or swipe horizontally to view their feeds. But it was apparently a false alarm! After swift backlash, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, quickly tweeted a series of apologies.
"Sorry about that, this was supposed to be a very small test but we went broader than we anticipated," he wrote in one reply.
An Instagram spokesperson told TechCrunch, "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." The outlet also reported that Instagram is still testing the new navigation style in Explore.
To many users' relief, the horizontal scroll reverted to vertical within minutes.
The outcry against the unannounced change had been immediate: Why ruin the holidays with a surprise update equivalent to a sack of coal? What was up with all the white space surrounding each post? How would people stalk their exes now that the update made it so much easier to accidentally double-tap a photo?
So, as we collectively do when one app frustrates us, we vented on another: Twitter. Furious tweets flooded the platform, and three Instagram-related topics made it to the national trending list.
Instagram did not immediately return The Washington Post's request for comment.