Instagram will make feeds more chronological
The app will put more new photos at the top of the feed, after months of criticism from users.
The Instagram logo.
Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images
In 2016, Instagram changed user feeds from most recently shared, to prioritize posts determined by an algorithm. After nearly two years of sustained complaints, Instagram has listened, kind of: while the company will not revert to entirely chronological feeds, the company announced on Thursday that users will begin to see more new posts at the top of their feeds.
Instagram says it is working on "changes to ensure that newer posts are more likely to appear first in feed. With these changes, your feed will feel more fresh, and you won’t miss the moments you care about."
Instagram is also working on a "New Posts" button, which will give users more control over when the feed is refreshed, so their scrolling isn't interrupted. "Tap the button and you’ll be taken to new posts at the top of feed — don’t tap, and you’ll stay where you are."
The bad news for Insta lovers? Instagram's parent company Facebook is embroiled in a massive data harvesting scandal, where the personal information of 50 million users was sucked up by a private firm called Cambridge Analytica and used to secretly influence political views and discourse during the 2016 presidential election campaign.