How do you feel about the new Instagram UI?

[Caro]

For folks who don’t know, Instagram’s been rolling out an update where there’s a new shopping tag placed directly where the notifications button used to be and then a center button that takes you to Reels (Instagram’s attempt at swooping in on TikTok?).

The blatant manipulation of folks’ muscle memory for clicking on their notifications that now leads to shopping is so icky to me AND I keep accidentally clicking on Reels too which seems to lead to.... teenagers lipsyncing and dancing in their bedrooms??? And as a Full Grown Adult it makes me really uncomfortable; it’s just clearly not content for me and I don’t want to be forced to look at it. It’s why I’m not on TikTok and I don’t want to keep bumping into it on a platform I almost strictly use for art and comics and talking to my other adult friends.

I’ve considered just... Not using the platform at all anymore but I have 60-something thousand folks and friends following me on their so I feel like I have some sort of responsibility to maintain some level of communication and it’s not really possible to get all those tens of thousands of people to move to a different platform to follow me obviously. For now, I’m just gonna take a little break from it.

If you’ve gotten the update; how do you feel about it? Share your thoughts and feelings!

[Rhonder]

It seems as thought my app hasn't updated yet, I'll have to check it out :0

Generally speaking though, I have similar feelings about the platform in general. My largest following is there and my uploads tend to perform the best there so I feel semi-obligated to continue using it but... it's by far my least favorite platform to actually use. The inability to plop links in image captions, strict image ratio restrictions, inability to easily post from PC, etc make it all around frustrating to use.

I feel like it's passively been reducing the consistency with which I post art online in general because half the time I don't feel like going through the hassle of formatting something to post to instagram... but then again I get like 20x more interaction on that platform than Facebook/Twitter so there's "no reason" to only post to those platforms if I'm not also gonna do insta so... I'm just sitting on a big backlog of art that I should eventually catch up and post someday @u@;;;

[uglygirlnextdoor]

I hate it. I honestly hate it is much more harder to discover new artist on the app but please show me makeups and 5 minutes crafting -.- not happy with it

[Kendial]

It's impossible to use! It's no longer really easy to post a story as it asks for permission to use the camera every time and it takes ages to load stuff I can't say I'm too thrilled about it. I don't mind them moving things about, but it just isn't as intuitive for me anymore.

[ar-ninetysix]

How about that shopping button? I never needed to shop, the absolute last thing I wanted was having ads in my face. They added them and that was tolerable. I mean whatever, just skip em, right? But now there's a dedicated button right where the notifications used to be. And the notifications are way up on the screen now, right next to your DMs and the "make a new post" button which was moved from the middle of the bottom tabs bc they thought their bootleg TikTok was so much more important

GOD. DAMN. IT. I'm still wishing we had chronological order on our timeline but they yeeted it into the void

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Classic Instagram trying to be something else again (then Snapchat, now TikTok). I always hated the shop button but after few adjustments I have been able to avoid it. Also my Instagram is the latest version and the like button is back there.

Sadly even though I have very few followers on Instagram (±120), it is the social media that does not flop that bad on me and many of people I know are there.

People has been suggesting to jump ship on Artfol (which is like Twitter-Instagram hybrid) but I find it like a deserted wasteland and there is no multi-post option.

[Kiweevil]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

[VibrantFox]

I already hated the platform for it's ever worsening algorithim even though i did my best to try and be active but the ui change just seems like the final straw to break the camels back

I'm already on artfol and admit that while it's still in dev and slow growing i at least feel more comfortable posting work there just waiting for them to roll out multi image posting

[alextsarace]

I say I have instagram app version from 2018-2019 and I'm ok with it still it's simply working
I don't have gifs and masks but who cares when I can upload photos to Diego's account and cringe stories to mine.

But, honestly, it's a vibe for every soc network nowadays BUY BUY BUY AND PRAISE OUR BAD DESIGNS AND UI

[Caro]

It seems as thought my app hasn't updated yet, I'll have to check it out :0

Generally speaking though, I have similar feelings about the platform in general. My largest following is there and my uploads tend to perform the best there so I feel semi-obligated to continue using it but... it's by far my least favorite platform to actually use. The inability to plop links in image captions, strict image ratio restrictions, inability to easily post from PC, etc make it all around frustrating to use.

I feel like it's passively been reducing the consistency with which I post art online in general because half the time I don't feel like going through the hassle of formatting something to post to instagram... but then again I get like 20x more interaction on that platform than Facebook/Twitter so there's "no reason" to only post to those platforms if I'm not also gonna do insta so... I'm just sitting on a big backlog of art that I should eventually catch up and post someday @u@;;;

I hate all the things about Instagram too even before the update but its been the easiest place for me to make any type of following and it sUuuuuuuuucks. I feel like all my eggs accidentally ended up in the IG basket

It's impossible to use! It's no longer really easy to post a story as it asks for permission to use the camera every time and it takes ages to load stuff

I haven’t even noticed that yet! It does seem to be slower though for sure!!!

How about that shopping button? I never needed to shop, the absolute last thing I wanted was having ads in my face. They added them and that was tolerable. I mean whatever, just skip em, right? But now there's a dedicated button right where the notifications used to be. And the notifications are way up on the screen now, right next to your DMs and the "make a new post" button which was moved from the middle of the bottom tabs bc they thought their bootleg TikTok was so much more important

GOD. DAMN. IT. I'm still wishing we had chronological order on our timeline but they yeeted it into the void

DON’T EVEN REMIND ME ABOUT CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER!!! I DON’T NEED TO REMEMBER!!!!\
But yeah for real who needed a shopping button so badly?? And LOL at “bootleg TikTok”. Truly something we didn’t need.

So I'm wondering if business profiles are excluded. I still see my notifications in the same spot

Nah, it’s just rolling out slowly. My personal account got hit with the update first and then my main art/business account got hit with it about a week later. A lot of people still haven’t gotten it either and some told me it updated days before I ever saw it. but I’m so mad it did it automatically too!! I’d like to have a choice in the matter!!

People has been suggesting to jump ship on Artfol (which is like Twitter-Instagram hybrid) but I find it like a deserted wasteland and there is no multi-post option.

I’ve seen people mention it but I don’t think people understand how hard it is for new social media sites to actually get up and running and a majority of them fail. It’s even harder if you have a kinda larger following already on the already long-established conventional social media outlets (FB, Twitter, IG). Jumping ship means you have to be willing to lose a LOT of people in the move.

I'm already on artfol and admit that while it's still in dev and slow growing i at least feel more comfortable posting work there just waiting for them to roll out multi image posting

Also on the subject of Artfol I feel like artist-centric platforms are great if you’re only trying to make friends and network with other artists but aren’t so great at helping generate a larger audience because it excludes a very large majority of consumers that aren’t artists and won’t be making accounts on art-centric platforms. I know that a LOT of my readers are people who are just casually engaged with the arts not enough so to make an account on something like artfol.

[Gleamiarts]

i hate the new update. despite me setting apps on my phone not to update without my permission, insta updated on its own >: (
reels just feels like a bootleg tiktok/youtube hybrid, the shop thing is ok because i can use it to find cool artist merch (and hopefully sell my own? 🤞🏾), i hate how they moved everything around. the line width of the icons is too thick it looks horrible. i just don't really get insta but i use it because it's somewhat palatable

[VibrantFox]

Also on the subject of Artfol I feel like artist-centric platforms are great if you’re only trying to make friends and network with other artists but aren’t so great at helping generate a larger audience because it excludes a very large majority of consumers that aren’t artists and won’t be making accounts on art-centric platforms. I know that a LOT of my readers are people who are just casually engaged with the arts not enough so to make an account on something like artfol.

this. which is something i'd been thinking about a lot. it really only kinda works as a portfolio type thing and a lot of the advertisment feels more geared towards said artists even though there's an option to make a profile as a non-creator. until it feels inviting to all parties i worry about it's audience growth

[TheDoublekey]

Don't like it very much. I was much more comfortable with the old one tbh

[MeltingCORE]

Nooooooooooooooooo! It just updated for me. Awful! I love insta but what the heck lol.

[skicoak]

I got use to it in a day or so.

These tech things are always changing.

[migxmeg]

I can't post directly from Google drive anymore because it's not working, so yep, hate that! Not a fan of the new layout and shopping button either, but at least I guess I'll get used to that. It's the social media platform I use and enjoy the most, grrrrrrrr.

[Rhonder]

I can't post directly from Google drive anymore because it's not working, so yep, hate that!

By the sounds of it, it may not matter anymore but this is the first I had heard of this :0 How did that work? Was it a direct feature of google drive or did it use some other website or program to post from there? Sounds like it may have been a much less frustrating way to post than loading everything onto my phone to fuss with xD

[migxmeg]

I have the Drive app on my phone, so start with that. Then (at least previously!), when adding a new post, I was able to click the drop-down that says "Gallery" and choose "Other...". For me, that got me into the filesystem of my phone and I could navigate to the drive folders and select an image. It always started at the same folder I last used, and it was great! I have an Andriod phone (Pixel 2 I think?) so your mileage may vary. Right now when I select an image it just doesn't load it. I'm hoping it's a bug that will get fixed

[Rhonder]

oooh I see! I was hoping you meant Drive on the computer xD Even so that might save me some downloads if it gets fixed! I use the drive app to get my files to the phone as well, but I never noticed that feature haha

[migxmeg]

Yep - I wish I could post to Instagram from the PC as it's super annoying to do that one thing on the phone, but oh well.

At first it really drove me crazy to move the art around from the iPad to the phone and the computer but I guess if something dies unexpectedly I'll be glad that there are copies everywhere!!