Source: The Verge
Instagram is set to debut significant changes regarding how users go through their news feed on the app. Meta’s Instagram is focusing on bringing back back the system of the chronological feed on its app. Users had been requesting this change for a while now.
This video and photo sharing platform from Meta is bringing two new feed options- Following and Favourites. This will allow users to catch up on the posts from their favourite pages in a fast and efficient way. They would also have the option to see posts from all the pages they follow starting from the most recent ones.
The initiation of this feature comes along just a few months post a statement by Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram. He had given his word to offer the option of a chronological feed at the time of his testimony before a US Senate panel in December 2021. However, he had dodged enquiries regarding child safety issues on Instagram and its effects. The app was victim to added perusal since 2021 over an internal research leaked stating its frightening affects on users.
Initially, Instagram had a chronological feed for users. However, it altered to a feed that was based on algorithm in the year 2016. The chronological feed offered posts in the order of recent to older from accounts one follows. The replacement of this with the algorithmic feed was rather unappealing to users for missing out on latest posts from their following list.
The design of the new feed:
The feed on the platform would be the usual one where users encounter posts which are photos, reels, videos, etc from the users they follow. The sorting of the feed from now on will have three options for them: Favourites, Feed and Following. Additionally, the photo-video sharing app announced that they would offer more recommendations to customers for their feed based on their interests.
The default setting would be set as ‘feed’ where users will find a mix of all posts from people they follow and posts that Instagram recommends. ‘Favourites’ will offer users the newest posts from a list of pages they will choose on their own, similar to the ‘close friends’ feature on Instagram stories. Lastly, ‘following’ will present the chronological feed for users where they can posts from everyone in order.
Unlike Twitter, neither can Instagram offer options only between algorithmic or chronological feeds choices nor offer the ‘chronological’ as a default setting. With this, the app aims to give users more autonomy over the way they use the features.