Antonio Bronic/Reuters
A selfie during the Christmas market in Zagreb, Croatia December 13, 2017.
- Instagram is making another change to its algorithm - a direct response to backlash from users.
- The app is getting a "New Posts" button that lets users manually refresh their feeds (rather than it happening automatically). Moreover, new posts are prioritized by most recent.
- "Based on your feedback," a post from Instagram on Thursday said, "we're also making changes to ensure that newer posts are more likely to appear first in feed."
Instagram is making moves to address a major user complaint: The reverse-chronological timeline.
Before June 2016, Facebook-owned Instagram used to display posts based on when they were posted - in reverse-chronological order, newest first. The change to Instagram's algorithm meant that you'd sometimes see posts from days ago at the top of your feed.
Users didn't love it, creators didn't love it, and now Instagram is responding.
"We've heard it can feel unexpected when your feed refreshes and automatically bumps you to the top," a post on Instagram's blog says. As a result, Instagram is introducing a "New Posts" button that allows you to manually refresh your feed as you wish.
The button isn't in the app just yet, and the post calls it a "test" rather than a permanent feature.
Moreover, Instagram will once again prioritize new posts over various other metrics. "Newer posts are more likely to appear first in feed," the post says.
In June 2016, Instagram announced a major change to its algorithm that prioritized stuff like shares, likes, the relationship between you and the poster, and other metrics. As a result, it was often hard to see what friends were posting on an ongoing basis; worse, you'd sometimes lose track of stuff you wanted to see when the app automatically refreshed your feed with a new smattering of seemingly random stuff.
It's not clear exactly when these changes are coming to the app, but it sounds like it's rolling out in the near future.