Instagram has removed custom locations

If you’re a power-user of Instagram, you’ve probably taken advantage of its ability to write Custom Locations on your image. Whether it’s providing a clever joke about where you are or adding your social handles to direct followers to your Snapchat or Twitter, Custom Location has been an interesting way for users to add something special to their pictures.

Well, not anymore. It seems that Instagram update 7.4.1 for iOS and Android, which was released on August 19, has done away with the ability to input Custom Locations on your Instagram photos.

This may have something to do with one of the biggest features released in the update, according to the notes:

Places search: Now that you can search by location, it’s easy to explore an exotic vacation destination or see what’s happening in your neighborhood.

In order for Instagram to maintain an easily searchable archive of places, it is likely relying on location data that’s already available. Inserting a custom location might make room for duplicate items, misspellings, or bad data, so it seems logical that in order to create search, Instagram needed to kill customizability.

That logic, however, seems to have stoked the flames of some angry Instagram users. A quick scan of recent App Store reviews paints a pretty definitive picture:

Sorry, guys. You’ll have to do without Custom Locations if you want to keep your Instagram updated.

(h/t to the Today Show’s Anthony Quintano for pointing this out)