Is it a bug? A flaw? No—it’s actually a feature. Well, at least it was.
On Instagram, there was something called the 'rug pull' which has long annoyed users. The term refers to a feature that caused users' feed to automatically refresh as soon as they opened the app, particularly after a period of inactivity. This would often result in Instagram in pushing off a number of posts that appeared in favor of some new ones.
Essentially, users would see something they were interested in, but after a fraction of second, before they could even engage with it, it would disappear.
Sometimes, this would force them to manually scroll to find it again.
The thing is, in many cases, those users wouldn't be able to find them again through scrolling alone.
Now, Instagram is decommissioning this 'feature'.
Rug pull on social media is bad for user experience because the sudden removal of content without warning.
However, it served a purpose.
According to Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, who confirmed the removal of the rug pull feature during an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session, he admitted that the feature was meant to improve user engagement by automatically refreshing the feed.
The issue stemmed from the fact that posts that appeared at the top of the screen would vanish before users could interact with them, leading to a less seamless experience.
The decision to remove the feature ismade to enhance the overall user experience, even if it meant sacrificing some of the app’s engagement metrics.
With the feature no longer available, Instagram will no longer refresh users' feed automatically.
Instead, the photo- and video-streaming platform will load content in the background but will only display it once the user scrolls.
The new content will then be inserted right below the posts already visible on the screen.
With the removal of the rug pull feature, Instagram users will now have a more predictable and less jarring experience when opening the app.
Instead of having content moving around unexpectedly, users can view the posts that initially appear on their screen without the disruption of automatic feed refreshing.
This change aims to create a smoother, more engaging browsing experience, with fewer distractions and interruptions.