Relax, Your Instagram Feed Likely Won't Change Tomorrow
Instagram is moving to an algorithmically-based timeline.
— -- Relax, your Instagram feed likely isn't changing tomorrow.
The great "Insta-freakout" of 2016 was unleashed this morning by a slew of celebrities, bloggers and social media aficionados after they alerted followers to turn on post notifications for future access to their photos, videos and messages.
Instagram announced this month it is planning to move from a reverse chronological feed to an algorithmically-based timeline, with the hope that it can help users keep up with the people they care about the most. An Instagram representative told ABC News in an email those changes aren't coming for a while, though.
"We still have weeks, or even months, of testing to go. Currently the test groups are very small. When we roll it out broadly, we will let the community know," the spokesperson said.
While Instagram hasn't shared extensive details on its algorithm or how it plans to refine it, the company said the order of the photos and videos in a user's feed will be based on the likelihood that a user will be interested in the content and the timeliness of the post.
"You may be surprised to learn that people miss on average of 70 percent of their feeds. As Instagram has grown, it’s become harder to keep up with all the photos and videos people share. This means you often don’t see the posts you might care about the most," according to a blog post on the company's website earlier this month.