Instagram Will Shift From Chronological to Algorithm-Based Feed

[nick42983]

For those saying this update is bad, answer this; why would you rather not see all the posts from those accounts you love the most rather than miss them and 70% of all pictures posted to your feed (that number if fact so don't argue that)?

What's wrong with just giving people the choice between an algorithm and a chronological timeline? We'd know pretty quickly what people prefer. Get outside and stop posting so much, social media sucks compared to real life.

 

[jamiecharlton]

Instagram today announced that it will introduce a new algorithm-based feed in the coming months, shifting from its current chronological-based feed. The move follows Twitter's announcement that it was moving to an algorithm-based feed. Instagram parent company Facebook has used an algorithm-based news feed for years.
The photo sharing company says that the new feed will be re-ordered to show moments Instagram believes users will care about the most. The algorithm will largely be based on a user's relationship to the person posting and the timeliness of their post. For instance, Instagram says if a user's favorite musician posts a video from the previous night's concert or a best friend posts a picture of a puppy, the new algorithm will ensure that the user does not miss it.

Instagram stresses that, as they begin on this process, the company only wants to optimize the order of posts. All the posts in a person's news feed will still be there, but in a different order. While it's unclear exactly when in the coming months users' feeds will begin to change, the company says that it wants to take its time to "get this right" and that they'll listen to user feedback along the way. Instagram did not mention whether the new feed will be an optional feature that allows users to opt out.

Instagram can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Article Link: Instagram Will Shift From Chronological to Algorithm-Based Feed

[doublepost=1458124821][/doublepost]Petition to keep the chronological feed...

https://www.change.org/p/facebook-k...source=share_for_starters&utm_medium=copyLink

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Not to be inflammatory at all, just a response with my personal experience. It just took me about 90 seconds of casual browsing to bring me to "two days ago" so I'd prefer a Chronological view rather than Instagram hiding pictures from low volume followers / low 'likes'. I'd guess it's harder for Instagram to datamine peoples 'best friends' on Istagram because it's a much more passive experience (unless they're logging how many milliseconds seconds you pause on a picture before scrolling on)

It's Facebook/Istagrams mistake of catering primarily to the 1% that have thousands of followed accounts. I'm not saying they shouldn't have a 'like' based option, but just make it selectable in a view tab rather than default to it. I deleted the Facebook app because they changed to this popularity system and no matter how much I tried, I couldn't default back to chronological. Maybe it's changed now, but it was just an annoyance and an insult that a computer algorithm was telling me who I should care about more.

Having said that, these are businesses and maximising clicks based on popularity is their game.

That's actually part of how they measure engagement. They measure how long you pause at certain accounts, even if you don't click the 'Like' button or comment. They also measure when someone scrolls back up to an update as an engagement signal.

I don't think they're catering to the 1% here. This is to the majority. It's much like Facebook, if they didn't have their current algorithm based feed, the average user would see more than 1500 posts every day. THere's no way people are going to be patient enough to scroll through that many crap posts to find the couple they care about. That's why they do the work of surfacing the ones that are most relevant to what each user generally engages with. Engage with baby pictures from friends and Red Bull posts often? That's what you'll see more of.

This change isn't huge. It's simply putting posts from the accounts you engage with most at the top of your feed, and then everything else will still be in chronological order right below them. It's very similar to Twitter and their "While you were away..." feature, which does the same. They've shown to more than double the engagement users are having with the accounts they engage with most often thanks to this change. I don't see that being a bad thing. The data shows people are overwhelmingly happy to be shown updates from those they care about which would have been missed otherwise.
[doublepost=1458125519][/doublepost]

I don't miss any... I mostly only follow people from real life, which means ~30 accounts. I miss 0%, now they get hidden and are in random order, why the **** would i want that?

So because you represent a very small minority that is not typical of Instagram users they should cater things to all of those like you, rather than the vast majority. Got it.

Nothing is being hidden with this new update. The accounts you engage with most will show at the top so you don't miss them and every other account will be right below it in chronological order just as they've always been.
[doublepost=1458125917][/doublepost]

In Facebook a lot of the good stuff I want to see don't come from the brands I interact with the most. I follow one company that announces news and great offers perhaps twice a year. But because Facebook algorithm those basically disappears. And some of my best friends post boring baby pictures. But because I interact with them in other subjects my feed still are filled with uselessness. A few friends are rarely on Facebook but when they are I don't want to miss those posts, but countless times I have and it will at times take some time to realize that Brother Facebook have decided that I will see the baby pictures again. It would have not been a big issue if I could have an option to always have "most recent" feed on, but I can't — it will eventually switch back. And Facebook do not do it just to cater for "their majority dumb users". It is because companies pays to be prioritized in the feed, but in the chronological feed that would not work. I don't make a big fuzz because usually the service is free and they need to make money, but for me the usefulness is limited now and I use Facebook rarely. Meaning also that when I do post I see that fewer people comment or like the few I like. Sometimes people ask why I never post, but I tell I do but they are simply not seeing those anymore because they are rarer.

The bottom line is: algorithms rarely work, but they make it much easier for ads to be prioritized by revenue for the social media companies.

If you're having that experience you need to make some changes. First, for those friends that you never want to miss a post from you need to select "See First" from the Following menu in their profile. Then you'll see all of their posts first in your feed. You can do similar for brands by selecting "See First" from the 'Following' menu on their page. Then you'll never miss updates from the people that matter most and even those brands that rarely post.

If you select the carrot in the upper right of a baby picture update and tell Facebook you don't want to see this and why, it will stop showing you baby pictures without cutting all updates from that person.

If you're seeing less people comment and Like what you post, it's because people haven't shown much interest in what you post on Facebook. Just like with brand pages, if your content isn't interesting to them, Facebook isn't going to show it to as many people. You may think it's interesting but people are obviously not showing as much interest and so your posts are seen by less people. I know you think your friends should have to suffer and see everything you share but I'm sure there are plenty of them happy to not see the stuff you share because it simply isn't relevant or interesting to them, no matter what you think.
[doublepost=1458125985][/doublepost]

I only follow about 50 close friends on Instagram (I use FB for more mass engagement). I want to see every photo/video post they add in chronological order, not have some hidden and shown to me in random order.

Nothing is hidden from you. Read it. They're simply putting posts from the accounts you engage with most often at the top and then right below them is every other post in chronological order just like it's always been.

 

[Wahlstrm]

Thanks, I needed a reason to quit Instagram anyway.

Facebook turned to crap when they did this and so will Instagram..

 

[Smartass]

I already stoped using Facebook more or less since the news feed is all just some likes and shares and nothing smart or interesting. Havent posted anything to IG for more than a month now since its becoming more and more like FB. These two social platforms are slowly dieing anyways... Now i hope FB at least doesnt buy Snapchat..

 

[Ries]

So because you represent a very small minority that is not typical of Instagram users they should cater things to all of those like you, rather than the vast majority. Got it.

Nothing is being hidden with this new update. The accounts you engage with most will show at the top so you don't miss them and every other account will be right below it in chronological order just as they've always been.

You have no clue if I am a minority or not, you just made that up. Got it!

So I have to scroll by the same picture i've seen a tons of times to see the new ones... how usefull...

 

[Xavier]

Algorithm means more time spent in the app. Please add in-app purchases for unrelated ads with a very large touch recognition area where I can accidentally hit. Also please increase the amount of ads I see and decrease actually photos from followings. Please add suggested photos from people I don't know.

Instagram is going downhill quickly.

 

[Big_Ant_TV_Media_LLC]

ITS HYDRA CONTROLING OUR LIVES OR WHAT WE WANT TOO SEE via FB & IG
anybody remember the ZOLA screen his mind in the computer telling CAPT hydra coudl only take over the world if people where willing too give up there freedoms
fb/ig can only take over if they can control what we see WHEN WE SEE IT
and probably what we can post asap?
JUST A THOUGHT FOLKS bigger folks are controling the world media even on the web

 

[SadBoy Pro]

Dear Instagram, thanks for that, but if you're going to do it at least give me the option to opt out.

Also, where are our notification badges!?

 

[C DM]

It's so they can control what you see in case anybody posts anything Facebook doesn't like (wrong politics).

Seems like engagement and advertising would be connected to that rather than something like politics.
[doublepost=1458137091][/doublepost]

Another sign social media has peaked, companies copying bad ideas and unnecessary tweaks from each other because what else can they do? At least when Apple copies Android (or the other way around), they try to copy a good idea/feature with some tangible benefit, not something that degrades the experience, pushing you toward an alternative/competitor, if one's available. That's the current story with FB and Twitter.

In this case it's basically just Facebook doing it to more products that they own.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

You have no clue if I am a minority or not, you just made that up. Got it!

So I have to scroll by the same picture i've seen a tons of times to see the new ones... how usefull...

It's not the pictures you've seen a ton of times. If you've already viewed them they will not be displaying at the top of the feed. It will display pictures you've missed.

And yes, by using Instagram the way you described puts you in a very small minority of users.
[doublepost=1458137470][/doublepost]

I already stoped using Facebook more or less since the news feed is all just some likes and shares and nothing smart or interesting. Havent posted anything to IG for more than a month now since its becoming more and more like FB. These two social platforms are slowly dieing anyways... Now i hope FB at least doesnt buy Snapchat..

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Snapchat is doing nothing but finding new ways to advertise to you but you believe it's the safest of these platform? They're the ones struggling the hardest so they're the one pushing the hardest to make money off their viewers. You'll most certainly continue to see more and more ways of advertising push into Snapchat in the future. Enjoy!

 

[C DM]

It's not the pictures you've seen a ton of times. If you've already viewed them they will not be displaying at the top of the feed. It will display pictures you've missed.

And yes, by using Instagram the way you described puts you in a very small minority of users.
[doublepost=1458137470][/doublepost]

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Snapchat is doing nothing but finding new ways to advertise to you but you believe it's the safest of these platform? They're the ones struggling the hardest so they're the one pushing the hardest to make money off their viewers. You'll most certainly continue to see more and more ways of advertising push into Snapchat in the future. Enjoy!

So with this kind of change if you look at your feed and the first half a dozen photos are those that Instagram finds "important" and then come back to it in half an hour and in that time a few less "important" friends have posted a few photos, those will surface first over the "important" ones suddenly even though they aren't deemed as "important"? Is that documented somewhere, given that it's not how things work out with Facebook, for example?

 

[bstpierre]

But people don't Check for yourself. Go and look at the pages you follow on Facebook. How many do you not care about? Most likely there are a good number. But since you obviously didn't take the time to unfollow them, Facebook has done it for you by not showing their updates. If you don't engage with a brand, they won't show you updates from that brand (yes you can still see ads and sponsored posts because brands can target people that like them but that's a different deal).

It'd be great if people unfollowed users they didn't care about, but the data makes it clear that they will not do so. To make the user experience positive, Facebook removes posts from those you don't engage with.

This is where the fun comes in. Lots of people complain and cry about seeing baby pictures or other silly stuff non-stop on Facebook but guess what, it's being shown to them because they engage with it. They stop and look at it, they Like it, they comment on it. If they scroll by (don't stop because that's an engagement signal too), don't like it, don't comment on it and you won't see more of it (yes it does take a bit of time before that changes). The truth is, those that cry about seeing too many baby pictures are the people that comment and 'Like' every baby picture they see.

If these algorithms were as bad as some people complain, Facebook would have driven their users off long ago, instead of having 1.44 billion active monthly users.
[doublepost=1458094580][/doublepost]

You may believe so but that's only because that's how you've used it until now. Men with horses believed they were superior even when the automobile was first introduced.

Every time there's an update to any social network we see people crying like crazy that they've ruined it. But give them a month and try to take away that update and they'd cry 10x as hard. Look at this thread. There are a ton of people crying about this even though they've never used it. They somehow know better than a social network with piles of user surveys, test groups, and million/billions of data points supporting the opposite argument. 🙄

He didn't unfollow the pages and people he no longer wishes to follow because FaceBook stopped showing them to him.

What I do in all three of these apps is scroll back to the last thing I saw and then move forward from there. I follow very few people so that is very manageable for me. If the app decides the order to show me stuff my system is screwed. You can tell me my system is wrong all you want but it is my system and you don't get to dictate that.

The problem with FaceBook's "most recent" selection is that it is not sticky. That is why most people don't use it.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

He didn't unfollow the pages and people he no longer wishes to follow because FaceBook stopped showing them to him.

What I do in all three of these apps is scroll back to the last thing I saw and then move forward from there. I follow very few people so that is very manageable for me. If the app decides the order to show me stuff my system is screwed. You can tell me my system is wrong all you want but it is my system and you don't get to dictate that.

The problem with FaceBook's "most recent" selection is that it is not sticky. That is why most people don't use it.

So your way of using the app isn't standard by any means. Few follow so few people that they can scroll that far back. Instagram said it themselves, the average user doesn't see 70% of the pictures posted by the people they follow. That's a real problem. They aren't going to get people to use the app like you do. They have to instead modify things so that people can continue using it in the way they've found most common. That means updating how people see items in the feed.

They have PILES of data showing how people use these apps. And that data shows the way they've gone means they use them more, engage more, and are happier with what they see. Argue all you want that they're wrong but the data simply shows the opposite it true. The majority of users are happy with the stories that are being surfaced. There will always be a small minority that complain about every product under the sun and in this case, those complaining about the Facebook/Instagram news feed are in that small minority.

 

[C DM]

So your way of using the app isn't standard by any means. Few follow so few people that they can scroll that far back. Instagram said it themselves, the average user doesn't see 70% of the pictures posted by the people they follow. That's a real problem. They aren't going to get people to use the app like you do. They have to instead modify things so that people can continue using it in the way they've found most common. That means updating how people see items in the feed.

They have PILES of data showing how people use these apps. And that data shows the way they've gone means they use them more, engage more, and are happier with what they see. Argue all you want that they're wrong but the data simply shows the opposite it true. The majority of users are happy with the stories that are being surfaced. There will always be a small minority that complain about every product under the sun and in this case, those complaining about the Facebook/Instagram news feed are in that small minority.

What data shows that most users are happier?

 

[Mums]

Seems like engagement and advertising would be connected to that rather than something like politics.

In your sheltered world.

 

[C DM]

In your sheltered world.

Yup, the world of actual reality.

 

[Bawstun]

Beginning of the end of Instagram. What this will do is push already-popular accounts to the top of the algorithm, and users trying to build a portfolio will ultimately most likely leave.

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

Also, where are our notification badges!?

And the ability to click the "Share" icon in Photos.app on the iPhone/iPad, then click "Instagram" and have the photo upload on IG. Right now, if I have a photo from a long time ago, way up my photos library, I have to manually find it or favorite it, then pick it out from IG's image browser. Annoying. Hard to believe that almost 2 years had passed since this ability was introduced and IG doesn't even support it. I mean, even Facebook supports directly sharing photo(s) or video(s) from the Photos.app.

 

[dannys1]

through the 1500 updates every day that the average Facebook user would see

1500?? What the hell do you follow spam bots and company pages? I have just under 500 friends on Facebook all of whom I know in real life and i'm lucky if there are 30 statues a day from them all combined! Plus i run FB Purity so its in chronological order all the time because quite honestly Facebook updates (and more specifically Twitter) are usually related to something happening at that time.

 

[SeattleMoose]

Nanny state mentality applied to IG. We know better than you and only want to help😕...ugh.😱

 

[73b]

Every time there's an update to any social network we see people crying like crazy that they've ruined it.

Not trying to start an argument, but especially on Twitter chronology is the entire platform. Once they allow tweets to be longer than 140 characters and start using algorithm-based feeds, it will just be Facebook with a bird.

 

[bstpierre]

Looks like I will be eventually switching to the Web app like I did with Facebook. With FB Web app, you can force the most recent feed, all the time. Hopefully, it will be the same for Ig.

Tell me more! I started using the web app and would love to force chorine all the time.

 

[bushido]

i like how no one agrees with OldSchoolMacGuy on here

Tell me more! I started using the web app and would love to force chorine all the time.

try the "Friendly" app. it lets you set "most recent" for good and also gets rid of any annoying facebook ads. oh and its also a lot better on battery life

 

[bstpierre]

i like how no one agrees with OldSchoolMacGuy on here



try the "Friendly" app. it lets you set "most recent" for good and also gets rid of any annoying facebook ads. oh and its also a lot better on battery life

I have never heard or saw any person proclaiming how much better the newsfeed on Facebook has gotten. Never! (except oldschool)