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Making Instagram.com faster: Part 3 – cache first

instagram-engineering.com

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

#61

Post by adventured »

pmlnr wrote: post #50
cevn wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you really want to do Web uploads on Instagram, you can do it using Chrome.

When you're signed in to your account, right click the page > inspect. Then when the right side inspect panel opens, make sure "device tool bar" is toggled to show up (it's an option in the very top right, left of Elements, Console, Sources, etc).

Set the device options to responsive, something like 500x700 or whatever works for you. You can drag the dimensions on width. Then reload the page. It should retain the device dimensions choice and will show the mobile nav bar at the bottom that includes an upload button.

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

#62

Post by opencl »

zelly wrote: post #55
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.

Making web UIs is excruciating compared to mobile (where everything is designed to be as easy as possible for you) so I don't blame them. Their main userbase doesn't use laptop/desktop computers anyway. This is the trend now, where the website is just an ad to download the app.

The mobile web version and apps appear to use nearly the exact same react/react native codebase. I'm mostly just confused as to why the desktop web version is completely different (and much worse because they removed almost all the features) than the mobile web version.

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

#64

Post by wolco »

tingletech wrote: post #38
mrsharpoblunto wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(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

seems broken on my copy. I see the same as the GP post a lot. Maybe this is not the cause.

same here. Older android version.

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

#65

Post by hinkley »

kaycebasques wrote: post #3

> However, as the product grew, a side effect was that our web performance began to slow. Over the last year we made a conscious effort to improve this. We’ve [1] been advocating strongly for using performance budgets [2] as a means of protecting hard-earned performance improvements. There’s some depressing stat around performance regressions... something like 25-50% of big sites regress in performance 6 months after…

That's us. Big win last fall, right back where we started. And it's not like we stopped working on things in the middle.

Every feature request is adding more logic to the code, and it's not uncommon for the business to ask for code that affects every single path.

I've noticed this before, but it's very true on this project: management is very hesitant to create new 'areas' of the application, and so more and more functionality shows up on the common paths through the code, with all of the attendant uptick in computational complexity that goes with it.

Long ago I had a job where they couldn't understand why the whole site had gotten slower. Well, apparently when we told them that putting an expensive call in the header on every view, that everything was going to get slower, they didn't believe us. Nobody needs that kind of data, the ones who do don't need it to be accurate to the millisecond, and every penny you spend on information the average user is unaffected by is wasted money.

There is no big picture. There is only hill climbing and getting stuck on local maxima constantly. And no I'm not bitter, why do you ask?

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

#66

Post by hinkley »

arciini wrote: post #17
kaycebasques wrote: post #3

> However, as the product grew, a side effect was that our web performance began to slow. Over the last year we made a conscious effort to improve this. We’ve [1] been advocating strongly for using performance budgets [2] as a means of protecting hard-earned performance improvements. There’s some depressing stat around performance regressions... something like 25-50% of big sites regress in performance 6 months after…

In my experience, this cycle of "add features and performance regresses" and "fix performance" is actually not a bad way to do it, because it allows for better overall budgeting. If you're constantly ensuring that performance doesn't regress, this makes certain features a lot harder to implement. In some cases, the better solution is not to "make this feature take a lot less of the budget", but to say, "are there oth…

All problems can be solved by adding a layer of abstraction.

Performance is improved by removing a layer of abstraction.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

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

#67

Post by sincerely »

austinhutch wrote: post #41
sincerely wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'm glad it's not just me!

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

#68

Post by ron0c »

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

Latest version, and I just tired the beta on Android 10. No pill, no hover button, just here's a post you were looking at aaaaand it's gone.

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

#69

Post by ISL »

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?

Yep. So strange. Chromium 76.0.3809.100 on linux.

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

#70

Post by ISL »

mrsharpoblunto wrote: post #30
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.

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.

Please make the webpage a first-class citizen.

And, for that matter, permit hyperlinking in posts. It is the world wide web, not a strange aggregation of profile links.

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