Instagram's chronological feed is coming back
The social media platform is testing three types of feeds you can switch between.
- I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.
You'll be able to switch between Home, Following and Favorites.
Instagram has begun testing changes to the way you see your feed, including a return to the old chronological format. Under the new system, users would be able to switch between three different types of feeds on their home screen, called Home, Favorites and Following, Instagram head Adam Mosseri tweeted Wednesday.
Home is the current Instagram experience, and it ranks content based on how interested Instagram thinks you are in posts, according to your history of likes and comments. Mosseri said Home will continue providing "more and more recommendations" for other accounts and posts it thinks you'll like.
Favorites will be a list you create of accounts you don't want to miss seeing, Mosseri said, like those of your family members, close friends and favorite creators.
Following will see the much anticipated return back to Instagram's original format as a chronological list of posts just from accounts you follow.
You should see the tests now or over the next couple of weeks as Instagram rolls them out. The "full experience" should be launched in the first half of the year, Mosseri said.
During a two-hour congressional hearing in December about Instagram's potential harm to children, Mosseri had flagged that chronological feeds could return in 2022.
Instagram booted the chronological feed back in 2016, instead choosing to display content that users are more likely to be interested in based on activity including likes, comments, shares and searches.