Tell HN: Instagram Web has been broken for weeks
I tried to reach support and all kinds of feedback channels, to no avail. I know this kind of post does not work well on HN, but I have nowhere else to try, so I figured I would give it a shot.
When you share a Reel from the mobile app, it gives links such as
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTAcc_gE7J7/ (tracking parameters removed)
When you open this link on the web (you MUST log in first, sorry), it straight up does not work.
It will: first redirect to `/reels/` (with an extra s. both should work in general), and then it will either
get stuck on a white page and, for some reason, make my CPU fan run like crazy;
give up and just redirect to your reel timeline, i.e. a random video that is not `/DTAcc_gE7J7/`.
This does not happen for all Reel links, but for a non-trivial number, if not most, of them.
The only workaround is to manually change the link to `/p/{post_id}` and open it as a post (which has a different, worse UI because the video canvas is very small).
This has been broken for at least weeks, and I found people talking about it on Twitter too. But time has passed and no fix is coming.
> https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTAcc_gE7J7/ (tracking parameters removed) > When you open this link on the web (you MUST log in first, sorry), it straight up does not work.
For me it worked perfectly fine, I was able to view the reel without logging in, and experienced no redirects.
Fwiw, I'm running Firefox 146.0.1 + uBlock Origin.
There's something weird on IG desktop. I found using an iOS user agent can help with the CPU issue.
I think they may be making it suck intentionally
My solution was to stop using Instagram and use YouTube (shorts) instead. A lot of the short-form video content from Instagram can be found there, and sharing actually works.