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A new way of viewing your feed on Instagram
For years, we have been viewing Instagram posts from our friends in a chronological order. But now it has changed with the implementation of a new algorithm to make your Instagram feed more like Facebook.
As our online networks of friends have grown larger and the social media companies have gained in maturity, the way the content is display has evolved. Instagram realised that the average user of its platform misses 70 per cent of what’s in their feed, including great photos with tons of likes and posts by their best friends.
From that observation, the mobile photo-sharing app says it will give higher priority in your feed to posts that each user is likely to care about most. “What this is about is making sure that the 30 per cent you see is the best 30 per cent possible,” says Kevin Systrom, co-founder and chief executive of Instagram.
The new algorithm is largely based on the popularity of the posts. Users could soon notice the change in their feeds as the testing will start slowly and carefully at first to avoid any confusion.
A model already followed by the main social media platforms
Maybe you haven’t noticed yet, but Facebook is using a similar algorithm since 2009, enhancing posts that could be relevant to each user, based on factors like whether the post came from a close friend or how the user responded to similar posts.
For the sake of completeness and in case you have been living in a cave without TV or internet connection, Facebook bought Instagram for $US1 billion in 2012. This is why this change is now implemented on Instagram when you look at how successful this algorithm is on Facebook.
Last month, Twitter followed the move by introducing older, popular Tweets to the top of users’ feeds in an out of order sequence.
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