Instagram fixes “rug pulling” feature that caused videos to disappear

Instagram has fixed a long-standing feature known internally as “rug pulling” – an issue that many users had thought was a bug. The term refers to how Instagram pauses the content a user is currently viewing when they first open the app and replaces it with a new post, even if they haven't fully viewed the existing content yet.

In a video posted to his Instagram Story, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri said the concept was a deliberate strategy to keep users engaged during loading times by displaying pre-installed content until the newer content is fully finished. However, this often left users feeling unsettled and disoriented.

“We did this because we were trying to load content and it was taking a while, so we showed you something that had already been downloaded in the meantime,” he said. “And it was generally good for engagement. However, it’s really annoying, so we stopped.”

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Now the app loads new content in the background, but only pushes it to the user when the user scrolls. The change reflects Instagram's shift toward prioritizing user experience to increase user satisfaction and retention.

“We've taken a bit of a hit on engagement, but for the average user it's a much better experience, so it's no longer a hassle,” Mosseri said.

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This is the second time in the past month that Mosseri has provided insight into Instagram's strategic decisions. Mosseri said in another video that the company specifically adjusts the quality of videos in user feeds to optimize both watch time and network conditions.

“In general, when you watch a video, a story, a reel, or a photo, we want to show the best possible video quality,” Mosseri said in the video. “But if something goes unwatched for a long time because the vast majority of views come at the beginning, we switch to a lower quality video.”