The return of Instagram’s chronological feed is imminent
Instagram users will soon be able to choose how they access their core feed with one of the options being the return of posts delivered chronologically.
In a tweet from the head of Instagram Adam Mosseri the company confirmed that as promised a few weeks ago users will be able to choose between three different versions of the feed. The changes will go out over the next few weeks with a finalised version of the chronological feed options delivered in the first half of 2022
Two of the options, Favourites and Following, sort content chronologically, while a third “home” option is a continuation of the algorithmically-driven feed that users currently have.
Favourites focuses on updates from a small cluster of friends and family, whereas the Following view adds the posts from everyone else a person follows.
Mosseri added that the non-chronological home feed will function more as a discovery hub, offering a series of recommendations than a way to keep up on content from people you already follow.
For most of its early existence, Instagram users were offered a chronological feed. That changed in 2016 when the company moved to an algorithmic feed that gave more prominence to relevant ads.
While Instagram users have campaigned ever since for the return of the chronological feed Instagram owners Meta (nee Facebook) are responding to ongoing legal discussions in the US which may end up forcing media companies into being more transparent about how their algorithms work.
