A Big Change Is Coming To Instagram Feed
The well-known photo-sharing platform Instagram is set for a big renovation. In March, the Facebook -owned company declared that it is changing its algorithm. Under the new order of things, it is junking chronological order for its timeline.
The company is building the change permanent now. As it says on its blog, “With this new ordering you won’t miss your favorite band’s video after the concert, even if it took place across the world in a different time zone. And no matter how many accounts you follow, you should see your best friend’s latest posts.”
“You’ll see this new experience as we roll it out over the coming month. We’re going to keep improving over time to help make Instagram even better,” the company adds in the post.
The photo-sharing social network is set to order the images in our timeline based on a new personalised algorithm. Till now, Instagram has always offered the pictures in your feed in chronological order.
The news prompted outrage from thousands of users, with hashtags like #boycottinstagram, #RIPInstagram, and #keepinstagramchronological trending across the site following the declaration. A request has even launched on Change.org to keep the Instagram feed chronological.
"To improve your experience, your feed will soon be ordered to show the moments we believe you will care about the most," reads the blog post.
"The order of photos and videos in your feed will be based on the likelihood you'll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting and the timeliness of the post."
The company added that the average person on Instagram misses 70% of their feed, just because there's so much content. The change appeared predictable after Instagram's parent company Facebook made similar changes to its timeline.
Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger trusts Instagram will face less pushback because the network centers on photos rather than words.“Look at my feed now. I follow accounts from all over the world,” he told The New York Times. “It doesn’t really matter to me what time it is.”
The change has established mixed reactions from the Instagram users. While some users are fine with the 'Facebook-like treatment' given to Instagram, others have spoken displeasure.
Instagram , which has been testing the changes on a small section of users since March, said that the tests have been successful. "Over the past few months, we brought this new way of ordering posts to a portion of the community, and we found that people are liking photos more, commenting more and generally engaging with the community in a more active way," said the company in the blog post.
Recently Instagram also rolled out a new update for iOS and Android users. The update contains a redesign of its mobile application with brightly colored app icons and restored black and white user interface.
"Our updated look reflects how vibrant and diverse your storytelling has become. The simpler design puts more focus on your photos and videos. Instagram is now a diverse community of interests where people are sharing more photos and videos than ever before, using new tools like Boomerang and Layout, and connecting in new ways through Explore," is how Instagram describes the update.