This week, Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, gave a long-awaited announcement that chronological view options have returned to the platform.
Back in January, Mosseri updated users that Instagram was testing three new options for how posts would appear in their feeds.
The news came on the heels of Mosseri’s testimony with the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security in December.
During the testimony, the subcommittee asked Mosseri to account for how algorithms may be manipulating audiences. He responded by saying that the platform would bring back a chronological feed so users could have more choice when it comes to how they use the app.
The two new feeds available as of this week are Following and Favorites.
If you select the Following option, you’ll see posts from accounts you’ve followed in chronological order.
“Over time, we have introduced more recommendations into the main feed because we think it’s important for us to help people discover new things, to learn about content on Instagram that they didn’t even know existed, but they might enjoy or love,” Mosseri said in a new post.
“But we also think it’s important, and we’ve gotten a lot of feedback, that people have access to a determinist chronological feed just from the accounts that they’ve decided to follow.”
The second new option is called Favourites, which shows you a feed of the friends and family, or anyone else for that matter, you consider your favorites.
The main feed will continue to use an algorithm that seeks to personalize content.
To toggle the main feed with Following and Favourites, visit the home page and tap Instagram on the top left. Following and Favourites will be the drop-down options.
Perhaps unexpectedly, it does not appear like you can set Following and Favourites as a default option. Each time you close the app and reopen it, the main feed will return to the algorithm-controlled main feed.
The way Stories appear is also still controlled by the algorithm.
📣 Chrono Update 📣
Today, we’re launching two new chronological views for your Instagram Feed – Following and Favorites. These options give you more choice and control over what you see in the app.
Let me know what you think 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/MBmPUUoGCV
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) March 23, 2022
According to Alessandro Paluzzi, a mobile developer, another new feed may be in the works as well. On Friday, he shared on Twitter that Instagram is developing a full immersive feed.
#Instagram is working on a full immersive feed 👀 pic.twitter.com/zTXVpH4C6n
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) March 25, 2022
If this new feed is launched, it looks like it will combine static images, Reels and Stories similar to TikTok’s vertical scroll feed.