Instagram is making some important changes to its feed, the company announced today.
It has been two years since Instagram announced that it was changing its feed to be “algorithm-based”, which the social network said would try to show you content you were more likely wanting to see, rather than just the newest posts from the accounts you followed.
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It’s safe to say that idea didn’t go over all that well for Instagram, and while it has taken a bit of time, the company has just today announced that it will be changing the feed once again, this time putting the focus back on “newer posts”, rather than some algorithm working behind-the-scenes to try and figure out what each individual user might want to see.
A pair of pretty important updates are currently in tow. Firstly, newer posts are now more likely to appear first in your feed versus the previous feed sorting based on relevancy. And secondly, Instagram is turning off the ability for your feed to automatically refresh itself.
This is how it’s going to work, according to Instagram:
“We’ve heard it can feel unexpected when your feed refreshes and automatically bumps you to the top. So today we’re testing a “New Posts” button that lets you choose when you want to refresh, rather than it happening automatically. 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. We hope this makes browsing Instagram much more enjoyable.”
Instagram’s announcement today also confirms that the company has heard the feedback provided by its user base, and, as a result, confirms it will be tweaking the feed so that newer posts from accounts you follow will populate at the top of the list, rather than just popping up randomly throughout the feed.
Instagram also states that more changes are on the way in the coming months, but isn’t going into any details just yet.
This is a big change. An important change. A change that never should’ve needed to happen because Instagram never should have ruined the feed in the first place. But, better late than never anyway.