Instagram Trials New Way To Somewhat Bring Back Chronological Feeds
Image via Instagram
For years, Instagram users have been asking the photo-sharing platform to bring back reverse chronological feeds. Instagram killed this viewing style to bring more prominence to “relevant” posts, likely to also push more content from advertisers to users’ feeds.
Now, it seems like Instagram account owners could enjoy some semblance of the reverse chronological feed, though it won’t be in the same layout that longtime users know and love. As uncovered by hacker Jane Manchun Wong in the code of Instagram’s Android app, Instagram is trialing a ‘Latest Post’ popup that reveals the most recent content uploaded within their circles.
Wong, renowned for “reverse engineering” apps to locate hidden features, generated a series of screenshots of the popup, reading, “Welcome Back! Get caught up on the posts from [accounts you follow] and 9 more.”
The feature also presents “See Posts” and “Not Now” buttons. By tapping on “See Posts,” users will be directed to another screen reflecting the latest posts from people they follow.
For context, the social network declared in March 2018 that it had no plans to revive chronological feeds. As expected, this sparked some criticism, so Instagram also prioritized new posts in its algorithm later that month. The feed you are seeing right now prioritizes newer posts first, but is intertwined with “relevant” content.
Instagram has not confirmed if it will follow through with this prototype, so it’s unclear when, or even if, it will roll out the feature in the near future.
Instagram is working on “Latest Posts” feed for catching up feed posts
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) February 14, 2020
This sounds like the chronological feed people are asking for. Similar, but not the same 👀 pic.twitter.com/AUMwlZGtUr
[via TechCrunch, images via various sources]
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