We’ve been wanting Instagram to bring back the chronological feed to the app since it was replaced by an algorithmically-driven feed in 2016. Now, Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri reported that it is testing out the chronological feed again—as well as adding two other feed options.
“We’re starting to test the ability to switch between three different views on your home screen,” said Mosseri on his Twitter page.
Hammod Oh, who has used his Twitter account to provide information on upcoming Instagram features, has posted a video of how the three different feeds would work. You would be able to press “Home” on the top left corner of the app to switch between “Home”, “Following”, and “Favourites”.
Mosseri explains that the “Home” feature will be the regular algorithmically-driven feed. He continues saying that “Home” is where the app will rank content based on how interested you think you are in each and every post “to try and make the most of your time”.
The second feed option is “Favourites”, which you can curate and add your close friends, family, and people that you want to keep up with the most. “Following”, the third option, is the regular chronological feed, with posts from “just the accounts you follow”.
“We think it’s important that you can get to a chronological feed, if you’re interested, quickly, and see the latest that has been posted by the accounts that you follow,” said Mosseri.
In early December, Mosseri testified to Congress—focusing on how Instagram affects kids. This is after internal findings produced by its own research team was revealed in September about how Instagram made “body image issues worse for one in three teen girls”.
Mosseri also revealed to Congress that Instagram has been “working on adding a chronological option to the Instagram app” as its algorithm-based feed “might be addictive for users”. The change in feed options is expected to launch “in the first quarter of next year”.
Personally, I’m pleased that they’re testing out the chronological feed again, but I’m concerned that the addition of two other feeds in the app would mean that I would spend more time on it. I also don’t understand how keeping your algorithm-based feed in addition to the chronological feed would be a less addictive experience for younger users.
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