Instagram’s chronological feed is back, baby.
While your Instagram feed has, since 2016, been based on an algorithm that looks into what posts you engage with the most and posts of people you are following that are getting the most engagement, as of today, March 24, the platform will let its users choose between two ways of viewing their feed: Favourites or Following. The viewing tools will tailor and personalise users’ content so it’s most relevant to them and so they actually see the recent posts they want to see.
Favourites will see users being able to add accounts to a list to ensure they show up at the top of the users’ home feed. You’ll be able to add up to 50 favourites and make changes to your list at any time without the accounts being notified they’re being added or removed (because otherwise, awkward). Meanwhile, the Following tab will filter by accounts you follow — in chronological order.
To choose which viewing tool to use, tap the Instagram logo in the top left corner of your homepage. Interestingly, as Instagram’s research has shown that people are more satisfied with ranked feeds over chronological ones, they’ve chosen to make Favourites (essentially what it was like just before, but with posts from up to your favourite 50 accounts at the top), the default.
“We’re always working on new ways to improve your Instagram experience,” reads an official blog piece on the announcement. “We’ll continue to build features like Favourites and Following to give you more choice and control over what you see, and help make the time you spend on the app feel more intentional.”
In January this year, Instagram made another big change: a new monetisation feature called Instagram Subscriptions. “With Instagram Subscriptions, creators can develop deeper connections with their most engaged followers and grow their recurring monthly income by giving subscribers access to exclusive content and benefits, all within the same platform where they interact with them already,” it wrote at the time.
The service works similarly to OnlyFans and Facebook Subscriptions, in that it lets creators set a monthly price of their choice. Once set up, creators will have a ‘subscribe’ button on their profile and have the opportunity to share with their subscribers special Instagram Lives and Stories. Subscribers will have a badge next to their handles so creators will be able to easily identify them.
Read more stories from The Latch and subscribe to our email newsletter.