Instagram returns a chronological feed next year

Instagram is actively developing new add-ons to make the service safer and richer in features. Earlier this week, the company announced that it would introduce tools to protect teenagers on the platform. Some of these new changes are already active, while others will be announced in the coming months.

Back in 2016, the company switched from a chronological feed to an algorithmic sort that displays "relevant" posts. Adam Mosseri - the head of Instagram - said at the time that he made the chronological feed "impossible for most people to see everything, let alone all the posts they care about." About six years later, the company decided to re-implement the retired function as an optional setting.

As XDA developers reported, users will be able to choose whether they want the app to sort feed posts based on their relevance or publishing time. This news was announced yesterday during the hearing before the Senate subcommittee.

The current feed, which was imposed on all users back in 2016, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to determine which posts the user might be interested in. However, many users don't like the way it works and prefer to see the posts in the order their Instagram friends post them.

"We are currently working on a chronological feed version that we hope to launch next year," Mosseri said. He also notes that the company has been developing this for months. Although the company has not yet shared the exact release date, they say they intend to release it during the first quarter of 2022.

The change will be a very welcome addition that users will appreciate. And since this will be an optional setting, those who prefer the current feed based on artificial intelligence will be able to keep it after the old-new function appears.