Well, it's official. The app once known for its convenient, chronological order of posts is no longer. As I woke up this morning and did my usual routine of running through emails and social media, I noticed something odd. I opened Instagram, and the first post wasn't the most recent. It looks like the rumors were true, at least for me.
While the Internet and the social media app swarmed with users scrambling to retain their engagement by posting "Please Turn On Notifications" posts, Instagram followed with a statement:
Apparently, they weren't being completely honest.
To backtrack really quickly, a few weeks ago, Instagram announced that they will be moving forward with algorithmic feeds for you "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." This has caused an uproar among diehard Instagram users, claiming it goes against the very reason why people are so drawn to this app.
Back to this morning, I opened up my Instagram account and noticed right away a photo that was posted 13 hours ago on my feed. I continued to scroll down: the next post was posted two hours ago.
The first two posts on my Instagram feed this morning. As you can see, the post 13 hours prior was before the photo posted two hours ago.
I continued investigating this and found the same continual pattern. Here are the post on my feed in order from left to right:
The continuing pattern of out of chronicle order posts.
So, my first impressions of how Instagram is selecting what I see first? I have no idea. I reckon the first person's post I see is someone I interact with on a daily basis, but the other posts that were on the top I did not find relevant to me at all. It will be interesting to see how this works and how it will impact the Instagram community. While I may be a "test account" apparently, you should be prepared to see this, if not today, then in the near future.
UPDATE: One thing I have noticed after opening the app a couple times, is I see the same "leading" post over and over again. This could be something that is quite annoying going forward.
Have you noticed this change for your account? What are you thoughts on this change? Do you like it or are you opposed? Let us know your thoughts!
Mine haven't changed yet, but I'm sure everyone's will be okay. Plus, it's free, so who are we to really complain? "My business depends on it" Adapt. It's a free tool that costs your business nothing to use. Everything will be okay. - @stef.c.photo on Instagram
Exactly! The world changes, adapt! Don't put all your eggs in one basket, that will leave you vulnerable!
Its not free, I have to look at their crappy adds.
Really, do you "have" to? How's that affect your bottom line?
The point is, its not "free", they make revenue from ads that are shoved in your face. Wether you consciously notice then or not. And the people paying for the ads are expecting viewers, but if the people aren't happy with the serves and leave, then ad revenue will drop.
But the service itself actually costs you $0.
Sure you see an ad every so many posts, but you are still paying nothing, thus making the service free to users.
I pay to ride the subway and I have ads shoved in my face, I buy magazines which have ads shoved in my face, I drive on roads my tax dollars pay for lined with billboards with ads being shoved in my face, I pay for Hulu and get ads shoved in my face, I subscribe to cable and get ads shoved in my face...
To be fair we actually pay for a lot of shit and it still comes with ads. So to complain about a FREE service that places the occasional ad just makes you sound like an entitled child.
One time is money, and that is time taken away from view what I come to Instagram for. Yes it's minimal, but its still not "free"
But more importantly, they should be worried about keeping the viewers happy so they can keep making ad revenue. After all that is why they do it.
Yeah, i'm sure their teams of analysts and consultants have no idea what they're doing. What's that cost from your bottom line again?
Nothing is shoved in your face. You voluntary use a 100% free app and are complaining about the ads they use to provide the service? Give me a break.
Hey Stef, fancy seeing you here!
I didn't understand their tweet yesterday because I've been seeing my feed out of order for days now. They must be rolling it out slowly.
Same here, I started to see some changes on thursday, last week. So I guess they're not listening :D
Mine hasn't changed, its all in order. Also," but the other posts that were on the top I did not find relevant to me at all." Then why follow that person? I only follow people if they are close close friends and family or if they are a random person than their feed is always interesting. I'll leave the clutter to Facebook, which I deleted from my phone and only use at home.
How quick we forget how it all started on Facebook. This was the first on many "We think you will enjoy this" changes to facebook, now, all the Photogs and pages I wanted to follow no longer show up Unless I select the "See First" option. Hell, I don't even see my own families posts but I do see "recommended posts" and "Sponsored posts" and "We though you should see this" posts.
The people I follow on instagram are there for a reason and people follow me for a reason too. Just because I have a small following compared to a well know photographer, does that mean my work is not as important as theres?
Lets be realistic, thats what is boils down to, if you don't have 100,000 followers, your worth is nothing. I follow surfing, surf photographers and brands. Any bet, within a few months, I will have the brands at the top of my feed because they can afford to buy that position, and the small people I follow will disappear altogether, just like it happened on facebook.
Zacc Arias once said, I could be 1 of the top 10 photographers in the world, but no one knows I exist. When you are pushed to be the basement of posts, it's hard to come back up.
Why try and fix something that isnt broken
If you look at your Facebook Feed you'll quickly see that its the same people. I went to a random friends page that I forgot about and now I see his stuff mixed in because I interacted with a post or two. "Zacc Arias once said, I could be 1 of the top 10 photographers in the world, but no one knows I exist." That statement is pretty pretentious.
I don't know about pretentious, and he was obviously exaggerating to make a point. And I would agree with him, I'm baffled by the work of some of the "well known" photographers out there. They may have shit work, but they know how to market / network.
Keywords: "market / network." Most over looked part of everyone's brand.
so I don't rly understand it.. BUT am I now forced to comment on the pictures or like them to make them relevant for the algorithm? I almost never comment on pictures.. Oh and to understand it also: If the algorithm places a pic at the top and it is even 1 day old for example, are all the new posts from others who don't post every day or 2 hours listet below it? So I rly need to scroll down to find new posts?
I agree, I know a couple of painters in Australia, who are easily world class but both refuse to network and "don't do" social media (no IG, no FB...), they are both struggling to get by, scraping to sell their work from coffee shop walls.
I haven't seen any changes yet on my accounts. Only thing you can do now is send them a message through the "Report a problem" - General feedback channel and hope they read and consider it.
Nothing yet...but I'm dreading it's arrival.
Everyone here saying "learn to adapt" The thing I really don't understand from instagrams perspective, is why try to fix something that is not broken?
They are setting it up so users can pay to be at the top of people's feeds. So they are breaking it to do that. (Someone could correct me but that's how it seems to me!)
Maybe they think they can improve it. Maybe they will! I know, crazy right..
Given how god-awful Facebook's curated feed is, I don't think there is a word in the English language strong enough to describe the shock I'd experience if they were able to improve it over a chronological feed...
Mine hasn't changed yet, I suppose it's based on region?
"One thing I have noticed after opening the app a couple times, is I see the same "leading" post over and over again. This could be something that is quite annoying going forward."
This is the thing I hate most about when my Facebook feed would flop back to non-chronological. And it will totally drive me nuts on instagram. I use it to look at new things, not the same thing 10 times.
If it gets annoying as Facebook. I am going to start setting schedule posts and move on.
I'm curious to know what you mean when you say "other posts that were on the top I did not find relevant to me at all"? Don't you only see posts from people you follow?
What I mean by that is based of what they're claiming will be improved by this. A quote from Instagram "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." The posts that were 'bumped' to the top had no real 'significance' or were a 'moment' per say based of their claims.
No change on mine as of Mar 29, 2016...
Any updates on this? I don't see anyone else or blogs talking about the change anywhere else a day later.
Not too much, the only thing that I've really noticed is that sometimes a post stays on the "top" of your feed for an hour or two. Other than that the changes haven't been too drastic.
Updated the app today (3/30) again. No change yet noticed.
It's rolling out but I haven't "been affected" yet.
I did notice that the font color of usernames has changed to black. This is probably the start of it.
Perhaps the gig is up....Instagram is migrating to profit center model, with some greed mixed in.....nothing new in corporate world (s). Somebody's got to sing for their supper....Please remember these are geek buzzards, in full flight from reality. In this time space world, Instagram will be gone in 5 yrs or morph into a monster..... You know, I am such a bearer of good news!
Out of the three IG feeds I run, one of them had changed to the curated feed about a week ago but the other two were unaffected, today all three are back to chronological... even the one that had previously already changed...