Making Instagram.com faster: Part 3 – cache first • Hacker News Board

Re: Making Instagram.com faster: Part 3 – cache first

#41

Post by austinhutch » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 6:02 PM UTC

sincerely wrote: post #33

mrsharpoblunto wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't reveal the exact numbers, but yeah - a lot of people use IG on web :) Mobile web was always the big focus for us though - most people assume its just a desktop only web version, but actually the mobile web version is much more fully featured than the desktop version.

Since you're here, can I ask - is it intentional, when using IG on the web, if I click on a photo on someone's profile page, the comment section is auto-scrolled to the bottom instead of showing the description?

as a heavy desktop IG web user, this is a weird UX thing that bugs the crap out of me

Re: Making Instagram.com faster: Part 3 – cache first

#42

Post by workthrowaway12 » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 6:04 PM UTC

purple_ducks wrote: post #29

Does anybody from instagram actually use instagram.com? Because the comments side panel on pictures is probably the buggiest implementation of _anything_ i've ever seen.

not buggy but very unfriendly imo. i don't have an account but i have bookmarked a few. not sure if being logged in makes any difference but my pattern is: click on interesting post, scroll down the comments section, scroll all the way back up so i can click on the "+" sign to get more comments, scroll down to where i left, read some more, go back to the "+" sign, etc...

does not make any sense!

i mean, i put up with it because i don't have an account and well they can decide not to show unregistered people anyone's feed.

Re: Making Instagram.com faster: Part 3 – cache first

#43

Post by throwaway_bad » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 6:05 PM UTC

This looks like a pretty naive solution.

The more elegant way to do optimistic UI would be to use CRDT or OT.

Usually syncing is talked about in the context of syncing multiple clients. Here, we just want to sync the cached offline state with the server state. This allows you to make arbitrary changes to your offline state even if your server has conflicting changes incoming, it will all be eventually consistent in the end.

I would love to see a blog post about that! (the only way I know how to implement it cleanly is using pouchdb)

Re: Making Instagram.com faster: Part 3 – cache first

#44

Post by c8g » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

mrsharpoblunto wrote: post #23

mfontani wrote: post #7

> we immediately present users with a cached copy of their previous feed and stories tray, and then replace it with fresh data once it’s available I vehemently HATE this pattern. I'm on a slow connection, and I open the app. Yay, I see some (cached) content. I start reading. After a random amount of time EVERYTHING CHANGES, and I can't get back to it. It's gone, for all intents and purposes, forever. I'd love to have…

(Author here) To clarify, we don't actually replace it automatically - we show a pill notification that new stories are available. You can either choose to tap it and see the new feed, or ignore it and continue with what you were doing

I think it will be better if you remove unread posts from the bottom (keep everything till the scroll point) and append new posts, so, the user won't notice them.

Re: Making Instagram.com faster: Part 3 – cache first

#45

Post by mambodog » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 6:36 PM UTC

turdnagel wrote: post #36

mrsharpoblunto wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might have been an earlier version we were testing before we built out the new posts pill, this feature went through several iterations.

I just loaded Instagram and it did this. It’s probably not something you see because you open the app multiple times a day. You definitely run into it when you only open the app a few times a week.

This article is about the instagram.com website, not the mobile app. Are you talking about the website or the mobile app?

Re: Making Instagram.com faster: Part 3 – cache first

#46

Post by opencl » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 6:36 PM UTC

mrsharpoblunto wrote: post #28

opencl wrote: post #15

I wonder if they're ever going to bring the web version anywhere close to feature parity with the apps, or update the UWP app that's been abandoned for years.

You're probably talking about the desktop web version I assume. If you check out the mobile web version its actually pretty close features wise, theres direct messaging, stories, creation with webgl filters,etc. The desktop version of these is admittedly lagging behind though - but I'm optimistic that desktop will get some more love in future :)

Oh wow, changing the user agent to load the mobile website on desktop does indeed make it a whole lot better.

I'm less optimistic about the desktop version since the uselessness of it seems very much intentional but oh well.

Re: Making Instagram.com faster: Part 3 – cache first

#47

Post by tonyb » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 6:37 PM UTC

mrsharpoblunto wrote: post #27

ceejayoz wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have definitely had the "the thing I was looking at right after the app opened disappeared after a few seconds and I can't find it again" experience /u/mfontani describes.

Might have been an earlier version we were testing before we built out the new posts pill, this feature went through several iterations.

I have the latest version of the app (on iOS) installed and this literally just happened to me. I run into it nearly every time I open the app.

I also see if it the app is running in the background and I switch back over to IG. I can be in the middle of my feed and scrolling and after a few seconds it refreshes and I lose my spot.

Re: Making Instagram.com faster: Part 3 – cache first

#48

Post by rajacombinator » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 6:39 PM UTC

mfontani wrote: post #7

> we immediately present users with a cached copy of their previous feed and stories tray, and then replace it with fresh data once it’s available I vehemently HATE this pattern. I'm on a slow connection, and I open the app. Yay, I see some (cached) content. I start reading. After a random amount of time EVERYTHING CHANGES, and I can't get back to it. It's gone, for all intents and purposes, forever. I'd love to have…

I agree, and this happens on an even not-slow connection. I would be interested in seeing the testing studies that made them go with this change. (I’m sure they did some.)

Re: Making Instagram.com faster: Part 3 – cache first

#49

Post by pmlnr » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 6:46 PM UTC

> in part 2 we talked about improving performance by pushing data directly to the client rather than waiting for the client to request the data

I firmly believe this should never, ever be done. This is the very reason I swapped to linux from windows xp many years ago: there was no way to tell the computer not to do anything unless I ask for it.

Re: Making Instagram.com faster: Part 3 – cache first

#50

Post by pmlnr » Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 6:50 PM UTC

cevn wrote: post #31

purple_ducks wrote: post #29

Does anybody from instagram actually use instagram.com? Because the comments side panel on pictures is probably the buggiest implementation of _anything_ i've ever seen.

I just tried. Why can't I upload shit from the website? I tried changing my user agent and clicking the new upload button that appeared and it didn't work (possibly because it was a video?) What's the point of making a website if it's crippled compared to the mobile app?

Instagram web never allowed uploads.