Sometimes an update literally changes everything. Anyone who has used Adobe products can tell you how devastating even a small change can be.
Instagram’s latest update does just that – changes everything for no real, good reason from a user's perspective – ditching scrolling through images in favor of tapping through them.
You read that right. Instagram ditched the scrolling it has had since the beginning of time in favor of something many users liken to Tinder.
How miserable.
Of course, none of these changes went over well with the Instagram faithful who, in traditional Internet fashion, have made their displeasure known across multiple channels, including Instagram.
Even more confounding is the addition of a scrolling progress bar at the bottom of the images. Since Instagram refreshes your cache as you approach the end, this feature is just weird. You’re never going to reach “the end” of a set of Instagram photos so who knows what that is about.
FStoppers’ Alex Cooke talks about his impressions of the app update and notes something quite curious – namely that the new method of sifting through photos caused him to interact with an ad by accident.
Because ads will be placed at random intervals in between friends’ photos, this is more than likely to happen. But aside from that, this means that users see the ads and have to actually physically push past them to continue looking through their feed.
It’s not surprising that Instagram would update its app to emphasize ads just a little bit more. After all, that is how parent company Facebook makes money. And since Instagram is quickly becoming the diamond jewel in the company crown, trying to squeeze a little bit more out of its fast-growing audience is just natural.
Have you downloaded the app update for Instagram? What do you think of the features? Let us know in the comments.
