Instagram began testing its promised timeline feed last month. Testing this new version of the feed will allow users to switch between chronologically and algorithmically ordered feeds.
Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri first shared the planned return to the timeline feed last December during a Senate hearing on Instagram's impact on the mental health of teens and children.
Instagram later confirmed they were working on two new versions of the feed. One feed is called Favorites and the rest are Following.
Reporting us from Engadget, Mosseri said Instagram will soon allow users to switch between three different feeds namely Home, Favorite, and Following.
Home will be similar to the current Instagram feed, ranking posts based on what users might be interested in.
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While Favorite will be a special feed for the most loved friends.
Then Following will be a chronology feed only for accounts that users follow like Instagram's default feed before 2016.
"We think it's important you can get a timeline feed, if you're interested quickly and see what's new that the accounts you follow are uploading," Mosseri said in a video.
Most importantly, the Home feed will also see significant changes. Mosseri said the main feed will have more recommendations over time.
Instagram has been testing adding recommendations from unfollowed accounts and Reel to its main feed. So, it looks like Instagram is planning to double down on this effort.
Last week, Mosseri also said that Instagram will rethink what Instagram is in 2022 and focus on Reels and building more tools for creators.
For now, the new feed changes will not roll out widely. Mosseri explained testing the new feed is out over the next few weeks, with the "full experience" expected to roll out to everyone in the first half of this year.
Testing Feed Changes
We're starting to test the ability to switch between three different views on your home screen (two of which would give you the option to see posts in chronological order):
- Home
- Favorites
- Following
We hope to launch these soon. More to come. pic.twitter.com/9zvB85aPSp
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) January 5, 2022
