Why is Instagram in English?

Since January 29, many Instagram users have found their app totally in English with no possibility to change language. What's happening

If you're having trouble with Instagram, you're not the only one. Millions of users around the world have been complaining about problems with the social application, both iOS and Android versions, for a few days now.

The problems started on the morning of January 29: millions of Instagram users started having more than one problem with the popular image sharing app. For quite some time the service was down and many users couldn't access their profile or upload their feed, while other users encountered another bug: Instagram in English. Despite the fact that the app's language is correctly set to Italian (or other languages), users have complained that part of it (or all of it, in some cases) is shown in English. Even manually changing the language (Menu > Settings > Account > Language > Italian) doesn't get the desired result and Instagram stubbornly remains in English.

What's happening to the Instagram app

The problem, which at the moment has not yet been resolved, mainly affects users of the app on iPhone and iPad but also some instagrammers from the Android world have found themselves out of the blue with the app in English. The same problem also affects the app outside of Italy: on Twitter, where Instagram users have flocked in search of information on this bug, there is a proliferation of complaints from France and Spain. Some of them speculate that this error has popped up only with the latest version of the app, but it could be a general problem of Instagram since it is repeated even with apps in other languages and that in addition to the language change there has also been a general down of the application in half the world.

Instagram, again via Twitter, responded to users yesterday but referring only to the down and not also to the language issue: "We're aware of an issue that caused the app to go down this afternoon. We know it's frustrating and our team is working to resolve the issue quickly. We'll update you when it's resolved." A few hours later, it announced that it had fixed the problem and, indeed, since then the app has been working again, but the language bug remained and still this morning many Italian, French and Spanish users woke up with Instagram in English and complained about it on Twitter. So, it is expected that the Instagram team will also take charge of this issue and update the app quickly.