Instagram is going back to its regular, non-algorithm feed
format. The social company has rolled out the chronological feed option to all
users, which means that you can scroll through a non-algorithm feed on the
social app, just like in the old days.
The new feed display option is actually divided into two options: a Favourites feed and a Following feed. These are pretty simple to understand. The Favourites feed display will show you the latest posts from accounts that you have added in your Favourites list (that can contain up to 50 accounts). On the other hand, the Following feed format is just the regular feed display that shows posts from all the accounts that you follow.
One thing to note here is that both the types of format will
follow the chronological order of display of posts, meaning in the order that
they were posted, or starting with the most recent post.
While it is possible to now scroll through a chronological feed on Instagram, the display is, however, not a default setting, which means that you will have to manually turn it on if you wish to. Moreover, any time you log out of the app and log back in, you will have to turn the option on again.
In case you are wondering why Instagram decided to switch
its original chronological feed display to an algorithm-based display, the
company explained, that as a result of the chronological feed, users had been
missing “70% of all their posts in Feed, including almost half of posts from
their close connections.”
Therefore, to make sure that users wouldn’t miss content
that they care about, Instagram launched the algorithm feed display. The update
also boosted engagement across the app, hence benefitting Instagram.
Now with the ability to have control over what kind of display a user wants to have, it is perhaps a win-win situation for everyone, including Instagram.
