FINALLY: Instagram Set to Restore Chronological Order to Main Feed Next Year

By Paige Boyd, Managing Editor

Instagram has announced that it is currently working on bringing back the highly-requested chronological feed early next year.

As reported by several sources, including The Verge & Tech Crunch, the announcement came as Instagram head Adam Mosseri testified before a Senate subcommittee on the app's child safety issues (as mentioned in documents that whistleblower Frances Haugen provided to the Wall Street Journal). Prior to Haugen's report, users have consistently slammed Instagram's algorithm-based feed, first introduced in 2016, saying that they would rather see posts in a timely manner, as it was initially posted. Currently, AI is used for the organization of the feed "to create what Instagram considers a more personalized feed, based on users’ activity."

Despite defending the algorithm numerous times in the past, Mosseri had an "about-face" during the Senate hearing. “We believe in more transparency and accountability and we believe in more control. That’s why we’re currently working on a version of a chronological feed that we hope to launch next year." Although he failed to provide a specific release date, Mosseri did say that the chronological feed option is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2022.