Instagram is bringing back chronological feeds

9 December 2021, 11:23

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By Woodrow Whyte

A "version" of the chronological feed is coming back in 2022.

Remember when Instagram ruined everyone's feed by replacing the chronological feed with an algorithm? Well, five years later and it looks like Instagram are about to reverse that decision.

In a Senate subcommittee hearing yesterday (Dec 8), Instagram head Adam Mosseri reveals that IG will be bringing back a "version" of the chronological feed in the first quarter of 2022.

According to TechCrunch, Mosseri was asked by the Senate hearing if he believed consumers should be able to use the Instagram app without “being manipulated by algorithms". Mosseri said he supports giving people the option to have a chronological feed and added that the company was developing that option now.

He said: "We believe in more transparency and accountability and we believe in more control. That’s why we’re currently working on a version of a chronological feed that we hope to launch next year."

READ MORE: How to get TikTok Stories: TikTok is secretly testing new feature

Instagram ditched the chronological feed in 2016, claiming that "user misses 70 percent of what’s in their feed". So, what will this new "version" look like? More clues came from Instagram's official Twitter account a little later on.

In a series on tweets, the company said: "We want people to have meaningful control over their experience. We’ve been experimenting with Favorites, a way for you to decide whose posts you want to see higher up, and we’re working on another option to see posts from people you follow in chronological order."

"We want to be clear that we’re creating new options — providing people with more choices so they can decide what works best for them — not switching everyone back to a chronological feed. You can expect more on this early next year!"

So, the return of chronological feeds won't be the default setting but it does look this it should be an option for everyone soon.

It looks like this might not be the only major change happening on Instagram. Rumours are swirling that Stories might soon appear in a vertical feed too, similar to TikTok.

Are you going to switch back to chronological order or keeping it as it is?