It’s now 4 years ago that Instagram switched away from their reverse chronological feed to a feed which was determined by algorithms to keep you stuck to your phone and scrolling as long as possible, with posts chosen by engagement and popularity rather than simple existence.
Now, according to reverse engineer Jane Wong, Instagram may be looking to add back some of that Chronological flavour.
Instagram is working on a feature which will help you catch up to what was posted in your absence by showing you those posts in a feed.
This is particularly useful if you want to see everything a friend or celebrity has posted while you were gone, rather than just what Instagram deemed worthy.
Jane warns that the feature is similar, but not the same as a chronological feed, so we will see exactly what the implementation is when Instagram releases it.
Update: Alexandru Voica, communications manager for Facebook, has denied that this is a coming feature, saying it is merely left-over code from a hackathon, and that Facebook has no plans to “launch it at this time.”
Another great find, thanks for sharing it. For those who are keen to know how this was developed, it's an early prototype from a recent hackathon (a Facebook tradition). It is not available to anyone publicly, and we have no plans to test or launch it at this time. https://t.co/PMi2QVchLG
— Alexandru Voica ? (@alexvoica) February 14, 2020
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