Instagram Backpedals on Horizontal Scrolling After User Outrage
- Mosseri said redesign was meant to be a ‘very small test’
- Snapchat has struggled since a redesign users didn’t like
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
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Facebook Inc.’s Instagram redesigned its platform for horizontal scrolling -- and the plan almost immediately went sideways.
The popular social media app’s unannounced refresh, which Instagram has since labeled as a bug, took users by surprise Thursday. Instead of scrolling through posts vertically, some people were forced to swipe and tap left and right through their feeds, similar to how the app’s “stories” feature works. Users went berserk on social media, with #instagramupdate trending on Twitter. Instagram quickly reverted back to the original top-to-bottom scrolling feature even before everyone had seen the update.