The Facebook-owned social media Instagram has announced that it's updating its feed algorithms to favor newer posts (again).
Previously, Instagram switched from a chronological feed to an algorithmic one back in 2016. This made users to miss updates from others, making them annoyed and a bit fury.
But as Instagram finally listens, it switched back to chronological feed on March 22nd 2018.
The update however, isn't quite the same as the previous wholly chronological iteration.
This is because Instagram also introduced another major update which offers some extra controls to those who’ve long wanted their photo feeds to be ordered by timeliness again. The New Posts button allows users to control when their feed refreshes, rather than just have it do so automatically.
When users tap on the button, it will take them to the new posts. This is similar to Twitter’s "See new Tweets" button.
This is a respond to feedback from people who don't like being continually thrown back to the top of their feed every time it refreshes, making them lose their place.
These updates come after the announcement that Instagram has tweaked the user bios, where the mention of another account or hashtag become live links. Instagram also promises more improvements to the feed, which will be shared over the next few months.
This is where Instagram plays the game a bit safer than its closest competitor, Snapchat. The Facebook-owned image-sharing platform has more than 800 million users, and here it doesn't want to make significant changes to the way its platform shows its feeds.
When Snapchat decided to redesign its app and created two separate streams for regular people’s posts and those of celebrities and brands, it angered users.
Most notable ones were from Kylie Jenner, Rihanna and Chrissy Teigen. The three popular female figures have trimmed the value of parent company Snap, pretty much immediately after they publicly show their dislike.