Instagram accidentally rolls out horizontal scrolling timeline update in botched test

Take a deep breathe, Instagram users. Your timeline will now revert back to normal.

Outrage spread throughout social media on Thursday as Instagram users were greeted by a major interface change that completely transformed the way their timeline worked. However, the design overhaul that was widely rolled out is now being rolled back.

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According to Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, the big Instagram change was a test accidentally launched to a much wider audience than intended.

The horizontal scrolling timeline change was meant to be shown to only a small test audience.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Instagram users that had received the UI update opened the app and found they were now forced to tap left and right to see a new post instead of scrolling up and down through their feed. The new horizontal scrolling timeline also allowed for only a single piece of content to show at a time.

The Facebook-owned social network usually announces major updates with a blog post. This wasn’t the case this time around. Users were also not given a choice to avoid the new interface as an app update wasn’t required to see the timeline change.

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If you’re still seeing the new timeline, Mosseri recommends restarting the app.

UPDATE: Dec. 27, 2018, 12:16 p.m. EST: Instagram sent Mashable the following statement:

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