Instagram Takes a Step Back Towards Timeline Sanity

Instagram:

We’ve heard it can feel unexpected when your feed refreshes and automatically bumps you to the top. So today we’re testing a “New Posts” button that lets you choose when you want to refresh, rather than it happening automatically. Tap the button and you’ll be taken to new posts at the top of feed — don’t tap, and you’ll stay where you are. We hope this makes browsing Instagram much more enjoyable.

Based on your feedback, we’re also making changes to ensure that newer posts are more likely to appear first in feed. With these changes, your feed will feel more fresh, and you won’t miss the moments you care about. So if your best friend shares a selfie from her vacation in Australia, it will be waiting for you when you wake up.

This isn’t a complete reversion to a chronological timeline (which I really wish Instagram would offer as a setting), but hopefully it’s better than the ever-more-disorienting algorithmic mush they’ve been serving in recent months.

Update: So much for my optimism about the algorithmic feed two years ago.

★ Thursday, 22 March 2018