Instagram Fixes 'Rug Pulling' Feature That Made Videos Disappear

Instagram has fixed a longstanding feature known internally as "rug pulling" -- an issue many users had mistaken for a glitch. The term refers to how Instagram interrupts the content a user is viewing when they first open the app and replaces it with a fresh post, even if they weren't finished viewing the existing content. 

In a video posted to his Instagram Story, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said the concept was an intentional strategy to keep users engaged during loading times by displaying preloaded content until the newer content was fully ready. But this often left users feeling jarred and disoriented.

"We did that because we were trying to load content and it was taking a while so we showed you something that was already downloaded in the meantime," he said. "And it was generally good for engagement. That said, it's really annoying, so we stopped doing it."

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Now the app will load new content in the background but won't push it to the user until they scroll. The change reflects Instagram's shift toward prioritizing the user experience to enhance user satisfaction and retention.

"We took a bit of an engagement hit, but it is a much better experience for the average user, so there is no more rug pulling," Mosseri said.

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

"In general, we want to show the highest-quality video we can when watching a video, Story or Reel or photo," Mosseri said in the video. "But if something isn't watched for a long time, because the vast majority of views are in the beginning, we will move to a lower-quality video."