I suppose it was inevitable. One of Instagram's most beloved features is its entirely chronological feed — no algorithm, no priority — all posts are equal. That's coming to an end, though, as the company has just announced the impending introduction of curated feeds.
I despised Facebook's switch to curated feeds. It made it difficult to know when I had checked all the content I had missed since I last logged on, and Facebook's algorithm never really understood what I wanted to see anyway. I even went so far as to install an extension that kept switching my feed back to chronological ordering when Facebook kept trying to switch it to "Top Posts."
Unsurprisingly (seeing as Facebook owns Instagram), Instagram will soon be following suit. The company announced today that in the coming months, the ordering of 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... all the posts will still be there, just in a different order." Instagram promises that they're "going to get this right and listen to your feedback along the way."
Honestly, I think they already had it right. Having no ordering of posts beyond chronological sorting means I'm free to explore and discover on my own terms instead of being served content that was chosen for me. If I want to get specific, I use hashtags. If I want to see a friend, I search their name. That's part of the fun of Instagram; I often stumble upon things that are different from my norm and that change my vision or way of thinking, and a similarity algorithm will likely filter those out for me. I would much rather see the addition of a "friends" tab, a list in which I could simply add users I follow whose posts I especially don't want to miss. Alas.
What are your thoughts on this change? Let us know in the comments!
I'm actually pissed.
Anyone remember Flickr? Linear feed, zoomable images, rotation, the ability to categorize followers. I know, I know Flickr is dead, yet I really enjoy the app.
thats why i'm now on youpic it's more for photography
Sadly they are all doing it. Pinterest just started something similar with the latest update to their IOS software. Fortunately I backup my iPhone/iPad to my computer and not to iCloud so it was easy to delete the new app and restore a previous version.... problem solved. And you are right, Facebook is a total mess I hardly use it anymore except for a few groups that I belong too, Instagram has become my preferred platform. Let's be real, there's no way the "pin heads" at Facebook/Instagram have the faintest clue of what I want to see.... more than likely, just like FB they'll get that wrong too! The question is; where do we turn to now? Will this give life to that Google thingy?
Sign the Change . org petition to keep Instagram chronological! https://www.change.org/p/keep-instagram-chronological?recruiter=78492496...
Looks like Instagram is finally coming to an end.