On the morning of December 27th, many faithful users opened their Instagram App expecting the comfort of scrolling through their feed. Unfortunately, they were met with the atrocity of a whole new way to experience Instagram with just a tap of their fingers.
Let me save you from your imagination and just tell you that it was worse than Snapchat's update and Instagram's algorithm combined. No one was ready for it and they weren't happy about it.
This new Instagram update https://t.co/9rzcn607uF— Zara Larsson (@Zara Larsson) 1545924286.0
After many angry tweets and obvious negative feedback, Instagram set everything straight and put it all back to normal.
How awful was it?
Well, if you know, you know.
Count your lucky stars you missed the dark hour of Instagram because it would have saved you a lot of heartache and confusion.
I just woke up.... and missed the Instagram update everyone is talking about.... I’ve never been more grateful in my life #blessed— Manny MUA (@Manny MUA) 1545936303.0
Twitter was incredibly grateful when they switched back immediately to our normal scrolling feed. Everything was right in the world. That is until Instagram tweeted this out to there 36.8 million followers:
Due to a bug, some users saw a change to the way their feed appears today. We quickly fixed the issue and feed is b… https://t.co/ReqqZ59RlJ— Instagram (@Instagram) 1545930151.0
In an attempt to cover up their failed updated, Instagram blamed what everyone had already suspected to be a mistake on a "bug" that changed some users' feed. The people of Twitter did not hold back on calling Instagram out on their lie.
@instagram What a very clever bug it was too, with its ability to explain exactly how it had broken things... https://t.co/4Rdbs27WjT— Jim Boardman (@Jim Boardman) 1545935224.0
It's not every day that a glitch or a bug gives you plausible instructions on how to use it. Because bugs cause problems, they don't suddenly become user-friendly.
Now, could it have been a bug that launched their update before beta testing? Possibly. But Twitter gives us 280 characters now which could have been used for a better explanation than the "bug" excuse.
@instagram “Hahahaha my friend stole my computer and rolled out and update, it wasn’t me hahah I’m sorry”— cody duplaga (@cody duplaga) 1545931807.0
College students know these excuses like the back of their hands. They use it all the time and if their professors see right through it, the whole internet will too.
Instagram, all Twitter wants and deserves is your honesty.
@instagram Why don’t you guys just say you appreciate feedback and changed it back?! This is such a weird way of no… https://t.co/VH31F3ITve— Molly/Jak 💜 🛫New Zealand (@Molly/Jak 💜 🛫New Zealand) 1545933115.0
If you owned up to it, said that you appreciated the feedback, and you listened by changing it back to normal, you would have saved yourself the trouble. You wouldn't have to earn the respect of your followers back, because according to Twitter, you definitely lost it.
Accountability, no matter how big your company is, matters.
Honesty matters.
The people, they matter.
Instagram saw its mistakes and fixed up faster than your boyfriends ever will— Gold Medal Tré (@Gold Medal Tré) 1545935943.0
In fact, we applaud you for recognizing it was a mistake because we all know that Snapchat still hasn't a year later. But you should have owned up to it in your first tweet. No, Twitter hasn't forgotten and probably won't forget.
We are still waiting for you to be honest and own up to your mistakes because that's all we've ever wanted.
Oh, that and chronological order.
@instagram Can "back to normal" mean chronological sometime in the near future?— Barrett Sallee (@Barrett Sallee) 1545933520.0
The algorithm debate also had users in a frenzy, yet people haven't stopped using it. They just keep complaining about it.
Who knows? Maybe our complaints about chronological order will be heard and changed soon and maybe Instagram will finally own up to that mistake. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking that they've learned from this poor PR move.