Instagram Brings Back Chronological Feed Option

After fielding a few solid years of complaints, Instagram has finally budged and brought back the option to have your feed in chronological order.

The Meta-owned social media platform shared the news on Wednesdsay, outlining the different ways which users can interact with their feeds.

“You’ve been asking, and we’ve been listening!” IG wrote in a caption. “Today we’re launching two new chronological views for your Instagram Feed, Following and Favorites. Swipe through to learn more.”

Along with the option to view new posts in reverse chronological order, IG has also created subsections within the chronological setting called “Favorites” and “Following.” Following allows a user to view the latest posts of people they follow from newest to oldest, and Favorites lets users curate a list of up to 50 specific accounts to browse chronologically.

Instagram will still have an option to leave the feed the way it’s been for some time now—a mix of new, old, and suggested content. A spokesperson for Meta told CNN Business that the company is always working to better their user’s experience, and this update is a part of that effort.

“We’re always working on new ways for people to have more control over their experience on Instagram, and giving you ways to quickly see what you’re most interested in is one example of those efforts,” they said. 

Instagram follows suit after Twitter recently tested not having a chronological timeline, and then immediately rolled the update back because they realized people hated it. In most cases, it looks like research shows that users have an understandable aversion to not seeing content in the real-time order in which it’s being posted.