Social media is certainly a hot topic these days, with Facebook imploding before our very eyes. Still, Instagram — which is owned by Facebook, in desperate need of some good press — is working to become a bit more user friendly. In a statement made this afternoon, Instagram claims that they will be instituting a “New Posts” button so your feed won’t be as tightly controlled by the current algorithm.
We’ve heard it can feel unexpected when your feed refreshes and automatically bumps you to the top. So today we’re testing a “New Posts” button that lets you choose when you want to refresh, rather than it happening automatically. Tap the button and you’ll be taken to new posts at the top of feed — don’t tap, and you’ll stay where you are. We hope this makes browsing Instagram much more enjoyable.
Basically, new stuff will be waiting for you at the top while you’re scrolling, instead of having to see the same posts from yesterday clogging up your feed. Sure, Instagram is still going to notify people whose stories you screenshot, but at least you’ll be able to see you’re best friend’s avocado toast from this morning without having to wade through stuff you’ve already seen, liked, and moved on from. Instagram spokesperson Gabe Madway told the New York Times, “We did this via a number of changes, including an adjustment so that very old content does not get bumped up higher in feed.”
Instagram’s feed is somewhere in between the largely chronological stylings of Twitter and the algorithm created labyrinth that is Facebook, and Madway explains that it will continue to adapt in order to fit users’ demands. “Instagram’s feed ranking is powered by machine learning, which is constantly adapting and improving based on new data. But this is a nice change that people should notice.”
Last year, Instagram announced that it had over 800 million regular users, so it certainly makes sense from a business standpoint to ensure that they don’t miss a single adorable dog photo.
(Via The New York Times)