UPDATED 21:09 EST / DECEMBER 27 2018

APPS

Instagram backtracks after ‘accidentally’ releasing new version with horizontal swiping

Facebook Inc.-owned photo sharing app Instagram has been forced to backtrack after “accidentally” releasing a new version that did away with scrolling and replaced it with a Tinder-like horizontal swipe feature.

Instagram users were presented with the horizontal swipe feature for a brief time on Thursday morning before it was rolled back with instructions to users to “tap through posts, just like you tap through stories,” a reference to the Instagram story feature.

How long or how many users were presented with the horizontal swipe version of Instagram isn’t clear, but users were quick to take to another social network to discuss it.

“Due to a bug, some users saw a change to the way their feed appears today,” an Instagram spokesperson told TechCrunch. “We quickly fixed the issue and feed is back to normal. We apologize for any confusion.”

Instagram said the rollout was a test gone wrong, since it intended only to test the feature with a small number of users.

Why Instagram would be trying to mess with its core product is another question. As it stands, Instagram is said to be the most popular social networking app among Gen Z and according to some reports may surpass parent company Facebook in popularity by 2020. The app, acquired by Facebook in 2012 for $1 billion was valued at $100 billion in June.

Instagram has had problems before. In August 2017 some of its most high-profile users were hacked by a back-door exploit, while in September the same year the account details of 6 million users were offered for sale on a site called Doxagram.

On Aug. 14 it was reported that Russians were hacking Instagram users for an unknown reason. A month later, Sep. 24, Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger quit Facebook, neither giving a formal reason for leaving but hinting that they may be looking to establish a new startup.

Photo: Pxhere

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