We recently dropped iOS 5 so we could use the new 6+ APIs without backwards compatibility.
It makes me smile every time I notice IGListKit at work in Instagram. We put a lot of work into making and improving it. Proud to see it holding up 4 years later.
🧵 with some memories on how it was built:
We recently dropped iOS 5 so we could use the new 6+ APIs without backwards compatibility.
Except two things bugged the hell out of me:
1. No animated changes (duh)
2. Images could flicker and the like animation could cancel
If something triggered another reload after the animation started, the cell cancelled the animation (thus the UI bug)
When an image cell is reused set the background to grey, async load the image (cache or network), set the image. The async time between reuse and fetch/set from cache is where the flicker came from.
Enter UICV performBatchUpdates
So how the hell do I write a diffing algorithm? I literally had never done this.
I settled on Paul Heckel’s https://t.co/jpxuHNlpXg
Why?
1. It’s output matched UICV’s APIs: inserts, deletes, updates, and moves
2. There were example implementations I could actually understand
Foundation hashes can collide
https://t.co/h9eVHO342U
Or are too basic for diffing
https://t.co/Pp0eVFRS5e https://t.co/ZNPJnXlXa4
https://t.co/BACvyI2l08+
With profile done, I submitted a -12k change to remove the old infra.
Throughout this the eng team 10x’d and users 4x’d, we launched tons of products (Stories!), IG opened a NY office, UICV got diffable data sources, and more.
More from Social media
Great bit of journalism here by Sophia :) fun fact, we had some verrrrry interesting conversations about what exactly the Trump campaign might be doing on TikTok.
So let’s talk about that!
Super glad I could be of help btw :P
Anyhoo: my background = senior web dev, data analysis a specialty, worked in online marketing/advertising a while back
You’ve got this big TikTok account that’s ostensibly all volunteer, just promoting Trump’s app because they’re politically minded and all that.
Noooooope. They’re being paid.
Sophia says it’s just possible (journalist speak I assume) but I know exactly what I’m looking at and these guys, Conservative Hype House, are getting paid to drive traffic and app installs for Trump.
So how do you know that, Claire?
Welp, they’re using an ad tracking system that has codes assigned to specific affiliates or incoming marketing channels. These are always ALWAYS used to track metrics for which the affiliate is getting paid.
So let’s talk about that!
Donald Trump has spent the last few months trying to ban TikTok.
— Sophia Smith Galer (@sophiasgaler) October 6, 2020
But I've found videos that suggest his re-election campaign might be using a TikTok hype house to track how well pro-Trump messaging performs on there. My story and a \U0001f6a8 thread \U0001f6a8 below. https://t.co/2XWLTRKLqq
Super glad I could be of help btw :P
Anyhoo: my background = senior web dev, data analysis a specialty, worked in online marketing/advertising a while back
You’ve got this big TikTok account that’s ostensibly all volunteer, just promoting Trump’s app because they’re politically minded and all that.
Noooooope. They’re being paid.
Sophia says it’s just possible (journalist speak I assume) but I know exactly what I’m looking at and these guys, Conservative Hype House, are getting paid to drive traffic and app installs for Trump.
So how do you know that, Claire?
Welp, they’re using an ad tracking system that has codes assigned to specific affiliates or incoming marketing channels. These are always ALWAYS used to track metrics for which the affiliate is getting paid.
Is WhatsApp already the Super App of India?
Thread 🧵
Below are a few insights I gathered while researching on how Gen-X use WhatsApp as a part of @10kdesigners Cohort!
Okay, let's go!
1/x
Gen-X? Who are they?
Gen-X (short for Generation X) are basically people with birth years around 1960–1980. That’s basically our (millennials’) parents!
2/x
Check out this detailed case study by @zainab_delawala
📮 Communication/Community
This is the primary feature of WhatsApp.
This feature is the entry point for most of the Gen-X, they come to WhatsApp to communicate and engage with small
- WhatsApp group is one of the most used features by Gen-X. Most of the message more on groups than on private chats.
- Forward messages received mostly are written in vernacular languages. They are all well scripted.
4/x
Thread 🧵

Below are a few insights I gathered while researching on how Gen-X use WhatsApp as a part of @10kdesigners Cohort!
Okay, let's go!
1/x
Gen-X? Who are they?
Gen-X (short for Generation X) are basically people with birth years around 1960–1980. That’s basically our (millennials’) parents!
2/x
Check out this detailed case study by @zainab_delawala
📮 Communication/Community
This is the primary feature of WhatsApp.
This feature is the entry point for most of the Gen-X, they come to WhatsApp to communicate and engage with small
Can a movie (96') change how people use an app (Whatsapp)?
— Rajesh Raghavan (@rajeshraghavan_) October 1, 2020
YES. It can.
Let's see how\U0001f440 pic.twitter.com/BV0scQ2KEc
- WhatsApp group is one of the most used features by Gen-X. Most of the message more on groups than on private chats.
- Forward messages received mostly are written in vernacular languages. They are all well scripted.
4/x
