Instagram fixes annoying bug that slowed down people's reach

Instagram has fixed an annoying issue on its platform that many users accused of reducing their content's reach.

Instagram website running on iPhone — *Image by Solenfeyissa via Pixabay*

Instagram's head, Adam Mosseri, took to his official account and announced that the social media giant has fixed an annoying bug that reduced the reach of stories posted by users. Particularly, the bug jumped into action when users posted a lot of stories in a single day.

The Meta-owned platform has had its share of weird bugs that might have left users scratching their heads. One of the many things people do on Instagram is share Reels via DMs. An unknown bug reported earlier this year affected many, including Neowin's Usama Jawad, preventing them from sharing Reels with others.

Mosseri, who is quite active on his official accounts for Instagram and Threads, came across multiple instances across comments and DMs, where Instagram users complained about getting less reach on their stories if they posted several of them.

"And that is not at all the intended behavior of Instagram. So, we looked into it and we figured out what was going on and we have addressed the issue," Mosseri said in a video upload to his account. He didn't describe the specifics of the issue or whether the users with low story reach did something that acted as a trigger.

One thing to note is that a user may not go through all the stories you post in a row, which could result in reduced reach. Some people might get overwhelmed with too many stories and simply swipe away to the next user.

According to Mosseri, this behavior could be a possibility, and some users may not tap all the way to the last story. However, he reassured that "no longer will posting more and more stories in the same day decrease the reach of your stories overall, particularly that first story."

Instagram Stories have been around for over nine years. Over time, Instagram improved the core experience by adding the options to share and like stories, integrating with Spotify, and enabling users to comment on their friends' stories. It was also spotted testing a Super Like button for stories that people can use once per day.