Facebook recently announced that it’ll also tell you how much time you spend on its apps, joining a brand new trend in tech these days, but that doesn’t mean it necessarily wants you to quit wasting time on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. A new leak shows that Instagram may soon receive a new navigation feature that will make it even easier to lose yourself in endless streams of pictures and videos.
According to TechCrunch, Instagram is looking to replace scrolling, which is how you navigate between posts right now, with tapping. Instagram confirmed it’s testing the feature without saying whether or not it’ll reach your feed in the near future:
We’re always testing ways to improve the experience on Instagram and bring you closer to the people and things you love.
The feature is already available in the wild for some users, having been first seen by Twitter user @SupraBo_:
https://twitter.com/SupraBo_/status/1050449686547447808
While the change seems meaningless, it may completely alter the way some people navigate through posts on Instagram. Scrolling can be tiring, especially for older people. So tapping on the screen to proceed to the next image would keep people inside Instagram for more extended periods of time. And the more you stay inside the app, the more likely it’ll be to see sponsored content between those taps.
As TechCrunch explains, the feature looks a lot like the current navigation system for Stories. Also, it’s a lot like Snapchat, so it’s no surprise that Facebook is copying it. After all, Facebook did everything it could to steal Snapchat feature for its own social products.
