Instagram feed goes out of order as chronological feed arrives on users’ apps

It’s coming – indeed, you might already have it

Andrew Griffin
Monday 06 June 2016 11:16 EDT
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A screen displays a "This event will begin shortly" message before an Instagram event
A screen displays a "This event will begin shortly" message before an Instagram event (Reuters)

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Instagram feeds are finally going out of order, in the app’s biggest ever shake-up.

The site first announced in March that it would be introducing an algorithmic, rather than chronological, timeline. The decision prompted outcry and controversy, as people cooked up strange schemes to get around it.

Many people objected to the new feed – which will use information like people’s relationship with the poster and the amount of likes an update has to decide how high up to put it – arguing that it would ruin the usual way of scrolling through the app.

But now it will be rolling out over the next month, Instagram has announced. It said that the move had increased engagement with posts and so it had decided to install it permanently.

“On average, people miss 70 percent of their feeds,” Instagram wrote in a blog post. “It’s become harder to keep up with all the photos and videos people share as Instagram has grown. Over the past few months, we brought this new way of ordering posts to a portion of the community, and we found that people are liking photos more, commenting more and generally engaging with the community in a more active way.

“With this new ordering you won’t miss your favorite band’s video after the concert, even if it took place across the world in a different time zone. And no matter how many accounts you follow, you should see your best friend’s latest posts.”

The company said that it is rolling out the feature to users over the next month, and that it has already arrived on many people’s feeds.

There doesn’t seem to be any clear way of knowing whether or not the new feature has arrived yet, beyond checking the time stamps – which have recently moved – to see whether they’re in order.

When Instagram announced the change back in March, it prompted a flurry of posts urging people to "turn on notifications", in a failed attempt to convince people that it was necessary not to miss posts.

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