Why Instagram is so buggy?!

Why Instagram is so buggy?!

With proofs and occasionally simple solutions. These bugs have been found on Android phone.

I've been using Instagram for almost a year and I have noticed quite a few bugs. With this post, I want to share those with you and I would be interested to know your thoughts about the bugs of Instagram. My focus will be on stories and feed.

Before we begin, I'd like to mention that I do like Instagram, and I do use it quite a lot but that doesn't mean I agree with everything they are doing. I will have just 2 examples of things I don't like, one concerning the cultural aspect and one concerning the design (but if you're interested I could write more about them) and then we will continue with the bugs.

I do NOT like:

1. How they promote filters for people's faces.

It's very clear that they promote filters since as soon as you go to stories and upload a photo of your face in the upper-middle part there is the button for... filters!

Screenshot_20210425_092003 (2)_LI.jpg

2. The pluralism and the cluttered design

  • A lot of times I find myself wanting to use the stickers, but all the stickers are "too much" for me, I want something simple, something minimal and I can almost never find it... I would suggest instead of having so many cluttered stickers to add a few simple ones...

IG pluralism and clutter.jpg

  • The same goes for the typography. To put it simply: I don't like it. The font families may be ok but the point is to have suitable font families, not just good-looking ones. The font families should be -at least- easy to read. I'd suggest dropping the calligraphic one and add some new ones.

Screenshot_20210508_113609.jpg

Dear IG designers, please check the BASIC principles... Usability Heuristics rule no.8 - "Aesthetic and minimalist design".

Spamming/Stealing

I will not go deep into that subject since I don't have many proofs, I will say though I believe IG doesn't do -almost- anything to prevent spamming and stealing content.

  • I get many spam (and inappropriate) messages... and I'm 100% sure that many people receive spam too.
  • A lot of creators are complaining about stolen content.
  • Even if you report fake photos or stolen content, IG won't erase it.

Screenshot_20210129_134811_com.instagram.android_LI.jpg

If you are interested in reading more about the "weird" messages I get on IG check this post .


Ok, now let's go to the main part of this article which is the bugs.

Bugs

1. The app is not opening 💣

Without any change, without any warning, a beautiful sunny day IG decided to stop working🤖! I have no idea what the issue was. The solution though was the famous one: delete + reinstall.

2a. Can't upload a story

I couldn't upload a story. I had this issue multiple times. Again I have no idea what was wrong. The photo I was trying to upload was neither a big file nor something inappropriate.

And the problem was not only that I couldn't upload a story but that I couldn't delete it (from the visual perspective it was like I was trying to upload something).

IG-3.jpg

The other problem was that I couldn't switch accounts (I have 2 IG accounts).

ig-4.jpg

Dear IG designers, please check the BASIC principles... Usability Heuristics rule no.3 - "User control and freedom" and rule no.5 "Error prevention".

2b. Can't upload on my feed

Sometimes I can't even upload on the feed... Did you ever face that problem? Uploading on the feed is definitely a core feature on IG, how could that happen?!

ig-1.jpg

3. Can't share my post as a story

I have uploaded a photo on my feed, I'm clicking the button to share it as a story and boom... the app crashes 💣!

4. Buttons for editing a story are not visible

This one is really bothering me as I have to deal with it all the time. The buttons for editing are not visible... you have to remember them. This is a beginner's mistake... I don't understand how they haven't fix it yet...

⬇️Check the 2 images, the upper part. In the first photo (with the blue background) you can see everything, in the second one (with the white background) you can't... I'm wondering: should the user remember the position of each button?

Buttons Screenshot_20210425_092003.jpg

No buttons Screenshot_20210425_091935.jpg

Someone could say that this is not a bug but an improvement. No, for me it's clearly a bug and actually, it used to be better. A few months back instead of improving it they made it worst.

The same behavior can be seen in a black background. Not only the middle button is invisible but other buttons too (like the one next to the colors).

Where are the buttons?🤔

Dear IG designers, please check the BASIC principles... Usability Heuristics rule no.6 - "Recognition rather than recall".

5. Primary and General Messages are confused-duplicated.

I will not go into detail but.... I'm having quite a few issues with the messages.

  • One of those issues is that requests (from the server's perspective) are too slow and are not updated frequently, as a result, I don't see the messages on time or I see "3 new messages" and when I tap the button for the messages there is nothing new...

  • Another issue (unfortunately, I must have deleted the video of it), is that sometimes messages cannot be deleted. I talked about that with other creators that faced the same issue and we concluded that since these messages are usually spam maybe the spam-creator deleted the account and the message is still visible on our side.

  • Check the 2 images below⬇️. If you have a "professional" account you get 2 tabs for messages, the "primary" and the "general". As a creator, you can decide which message will go where. The new messages by default go to the "requests".

One day I didn't have "requests", so I had only the "primary" and the "general" tabs. The messages in the 2 tabs got duplicated...

The messages in the 2 tabs should have been different...

general-0_LI.jpg

general_LI.jpg

6. The panel is not closing.

This one is simple. I couldn't close the panel...

Notice the "x" button next to Goal.

7. I can't stop the music from other people's stories

I was watching a story from the explore page and then I headed back on the feed. The story I was watching had music playing. As soon as I went back on the feed shouldn't that music stop? Oh well, it didn't and I couldn't make it stop... so I terminated the app...

Warning: the music in the next video is a bit loud.

8. Can't upload/edit the photo (and where is the photo?🤔)

On "2b" I mentioned how I couldn't upload a photo. This one is a bit similar... I upload the photo... but then I got the message that I couldn't edit it... and actually the image is not even visible in the background... 🤷

IG bug.jpg

9. Can't see the avatars (profile pictures)

On the left side, below the three buttons, there should be the profile pictures of the people who liked my photo. But where are they?!

Screenshot_20210325_151302_LI.jpg

Conclusion

In this article, I didn't cover spamming, lives or video calls, my emphasis was on uploading/editing on feed and on stories. In my opinion Instagram for Android has many bugs, I hope in the future they will eliminate them and also improve a few things...

Let me know if you have encountered any of these bugs.

Notes:

  • I use an Android phone (Huawei Mate, Android Version 10).
  • Yes, I do have the latest version (it updates automatically).
  • Yes, I've been a beta tester (although I didn't notice anything different).

👋Hello, I'm Eleftheria, community and social media manager at Hashnode, developer, public speaker, and chocolate lover.

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