Instagram Gets Rid of ‘Annoying’ Automatic Feed Refreshing When App is Opened

Instagram will now load content but will not display it until the user scrolls.

Written by Shaurya Tomer, Edited by Siddharth Suvarna | Updated: 11 November 2024 10:15 IST

Instagram Gets Rid of ‘Annoying’ Automatic Feed Refreshing When App is Opened

Photo Credit: Instagram

Automatic refreshing of the feed was a feature and not a glitch, Instagram has confirmed

Highlights

Instagram removes “rug pull” feature which automatically refreshed feed
The platform will wait for users to scroll before showing new content
This move is aimed at providing a better user experience

Instagram is implementing a change for the removal of a feature that has long been considered annoying by users, the company head has confirmed via social media. From now on, the social media platform's feed will not automatically refresh when the app is opened after a period of brief inactivity, enabling the user to see the posts which first appear on their screen. Notably, this development comes after the company confirmed that it deliberately lowers the quality of Instagram stories and Reels which do not fetch a lot of views, reserving the computation resources for videos that are being watched by a large number of users.

No More Automatic Feed Refreshing on Instagram

During a recent Ask Me Anything (AMA) (via @_blunderchief), Instagram head Adam Mosseri was asked about a recent change on the social media platform which people did not know about. The official highlighted that Instagram has stopped doing what is internally known as a “rug pull” — a user interface (UI) feature which resulted in the feed getting automatically refreshed when the user accessed the app.

As per Mosseri, this was done because the app was trying to load content and displayed the last downloaded posts and videos in the meantime. While this feature was aimed at improving user engagement, even the company official admitted it was “annoying” as any interesting content which first appeared on the screen moved and disappeared, forcing users to manually scroll down to look for it.

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Thankfully, this will not be the case anymore as the change has been implemented on the social media platform, Mosseri has confirmed. Instead of automatically refreshing the feed, Instagram will now load content but will not display it until the user scrolls. Then, the newly loaded content will be inserted below the posts which are already displayed.

While this decision comes at the cost of an “engagement hit” for the platform, it is providing a “much better experience” for the average user.

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Further reading: Instagram, Instagram Update, Instagram Feature, Instagram Feed, Adam Mosseri

Shaurya Tomer

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Shaurya Tomer is a Sub Editor at Gadgets 360 with 2 years of experience across a diverse spectrum of topics. With a particular focus on smartphones, gadgets and the ever-evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI), he often likes to explore the industry's intricacies and innovations – whether dissecting the latest smartphone release or exploring the ethical implications of AI advancements. In his free time, he often embarks on impromptu road trips to unwind, recharge, and ...More