A major new update to Instagram photo app has sparked anger among many users. As a result, the app is bombarded with negative reviews from angry users, among other things.
With the update, Instagram will now pay more attention to large, full-screen photos and videos. This puts an end to the square photos that once made the app great. There is one image at a time on your phone full screen, after which you swipe to the next photo or video. The sound is now automatically set to maximum volume.
That new interface is very similar to that of competitor TikTok, which has become gigantic in a short time. Instagram more often copies functions in this way, such as with the Stories that were once taken over from Snapchat. They had great success with that: Instagram has been used much more often since the addition of Stories.
However, the new design has been received critically. Hundreds of reviews with the lowest possible score have been placed in the Apple App Store by disgruntled Instagrammers. ‘The automatic sound playback is very annoying’, writes one of the reviewers. ‘And I miss the old way of scrolling. The old version of the app was much better and smoother.’
Another user: “I wish there was a way to use the old app again because it really doesn’t work well. And why is the sound always played out loud?’ And: ‘This isn’t TikTok, so don’t try to be it’
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The complaints about Instagram are also going viral on other social media. A tweet from journalist Meg Watson about the update quickly went viral, with more than 10,000 retweets and nearly 120,000 likes. “Instagram completely understands what I want: no pictures of my friends, TikToks of meme accounts I don’t follow, a hundred times more advertising and everything at maximum volume without my permission,” she writes bitterly.
There are also complaints in the Google app store, but of a slightly different nature: users there report en masse that the app continues to crash and has become unusable since the last update.
It remains to be seen whether Instagram will do anything with the feedback. When sister company Facebook changed its design years ago, it also sparked outrage and anger, but the site has largely remained the same ever since.
Done with Instagram? This is how you export all your photos
For those who want to leave Instagram after the update, you can download all photos from the social network with a few simple actions. It goes like this:
1. Go to Instagram.com in your web browser and log in.
2. Click on your profile picture at the top right and choose ‘Settings’.
3. Go to ‘Privacy and Security’
4. Click on ‘Request download’ under ‘Download data’.
You will then receive a download with all the data Instagram has about you. These are your photos, but also files with your activity on the platform.
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