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Instagram to soon start showing content out of order and based on personalized algorithms

Instagram Official Multiple Accounts

Following in the footsteps of Facebook, Instagram today announced in a blog post that it will soon adjust the way in which content is presented in its iOS and Android apps. While content is currently shown in chronological order, Instagram will soon switch to new personalized algorithms based on each user…

In the blog post, Instagram says that people miss an average 70 percent of content that appears in their feeds, so to combat this, it will start ordering the feeds of users to show the moments it believes users “care about the most.”

For instance, Instagram says that the order of photos and videos will be adjusted based on factors like your relationship with the person posting and the timelines of the post. Presumably, factors like your like and comment history will also come into play.

If your favorite musician shares a video from last night’s concert, it will be waiting for you when you wake up, no matter how many accounts you follow or what time zone you live in. And when your best friend posts a photo of her new puppy, you won’t miss it.

Instagram says that the change will rollout soon, but that it will continue to listen to user feedback and tweak the algorithm over the coming months.

It’s an interesting idea for a service like Instagram to switch from a chronologically powered feed to one powered by a personalized algorithm. Given that Instagram’s main interface is a single stream of content, it makes since that users might often miss images, but at the same time, one of the biggest selling points of the service is going back and being able to see what has happened recently, not potentially older content like this change could present.

Instagram has not said whether or not it will offer a setting for switching between a chronological feed and an algorithm-based feed.

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Comments

  1. NOOOOOOOOOO!

  2. Torrey Huerta - 8 years ago

    Did they not notice how EVERYONE hated when Facebook did that?

  3. Vincent Conroy - 8 years ago

    Algorithms = Advertisements

  4. PhilBoogie - 8 years ago

    Oh yeah, Instagram, I’ve heard about this, thinking I could view photos, which I like. So I went to their website, alas, no photos to be viewed. Quite an awkward experience that was.

  5. Why Instagram why? Just a load of crap…

  6. Jurgis Ŝalna - 8 years ago

    It’s time to milk this cow.
    Can’t wait until Gmail starts showing emails ‘based on what you like’.

  7. This is so lame. Just like Facebook and it is really annoying. People are used to chronological order and it should fking stay that way.

  8. tigerpork - 8 years ago

    Will this feature coming to 9to5Mac?

  9. Neil (@NeilParkerTX) - 8 years ago

    This is a terrible idea. I ALWAYS choose “Most Recent” when using Facebook. This is not going to make IG better, it’ll only irritate regular users and the kids. I don’t miss 70% of what’s posted, I keep scrolling and see everything that is posted from the last time I checked.

    I can’t see this being the trick that gets folks to stick around more and see more ads.

  10. Chris (@pelted) - 8 years ago

    And now I can stop using Instagram as well. Thank you for making my life simpler by removing my desire to use your service. I now have more time to read, and play Lego with my kids.

  11. Jason R. Olsen - 8 years ago

    Bye bye Instagram. This is what I loved about you and hated about Facebook: I WANT TO MAKE MY OWN DECISIONs ON WHAT POSTS I LIKE AND SEE, not some stupid algorithm!

  12. aaronh - 8 years ago

    And goodbye, Instagram.

  13. Tony Kloubek - 8 years ago

    Once they start doing this I’ll stop using it forever.

Author

Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com