'Grammers, the day has come. After over a year of begging Instagram to bring back the chronological feed and feeling disappointed by every new update that didn't do just that, the app had heard your prayers and has an answer.
In a blog post published today, Instagram announced two changes meant to "give you more control over your feed and ensure the posts you see are timely." We can almost hear the "hallelujahs" ringing out across the Instagram world.
The more important of the two changes is a promise to "ensure that newer posts are more likely to appear first in feed." Unlike other updates — such as linked hashtags in bios and font options in Stories — algorithmic alterations like this one are less visible. If you want to hold Instagram to their word, you'll just need to continue checking that the posts appearing at the top of your feed are, in fact, the most recent ones. This doesn't sound like a completely return to the chronological feed, but it does seem like Instagram is making a compromise with its own goals and what users want.
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The second change is smaller, but — if it works correctly — will alleviate a common frustration: Being pushed back to the top of your feed, mid-scroll, whenever it refreshes. Instagram says it is testing a "New Posts" button that you can tap to see the refreshed feed if you want, or leave untouched to continue scrolling.
Users have made these requests for months, so why is Instagram just responding now? The viral rise (and subsequent fall) of a chronological competitor, Vero, may have had something to do with it. Though it could also be the case that user complaints were persistent enough that Instagram felt it was finally time to do something.
Either way, it's good news for those who have disliked the move away from a chronological feed since the beginning, in 2016. At the time, Instagram reasoned that users were missing, on average, 70% of their feeds. The change was meant to show you "the moments you care about first."
Care, schmare. Just give it to us in order.
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