Rumours started circulating in mid-February that Instagram’s chronological Feed was making a comeback! This came after a ‘Latest Post’ feature was found deep in the app’s code.
The discovery was first made by Jane Manchun Wong, a hacker based in Hong Kong who discovers unreleased features on apps just for fun. She has gained a significant following since revealing new features on Instagram, Spotify, LinkedIn and other apps months before they’ve officially been announced.
Wong was the first to report on Instagram’s testing of hiding likes and revealed her findings on Twitter 2 weeks before Instagram started publicly testing.
To keep up with her findings, follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/wongmjane
Instagram’s chronological Feed could possibly be making a comeback. How will this affect when and how often you post?
What Instagram says about the chronological feed
Instagram has claimed the new feature is just a prototype, but highly requested tools have come to fruition in the past.
It appears that the new feature will run parallel to the normal feed and the “Latest Posts” feature will act as a pop-up over the main feed when users log in – leading them to a new page that shows the most recent content from the accounts they follow.
If the user chooses not to click through on “Latest Posts” they will just return to the standard feed based on Instagram’s algorithm.
We’ve covered more on Instagram’s algorithm myths too.
Since Wong’s Tweet about Instagram’s new features, Facebook has responded saying: “Latest Posts” feature came from their Hackathon, where employees come up with creative ideas, but they have no plans to move forward with the feature.
What the chronological Feed would mean for your business
When Instagram removed the chronological feed in 2016 in favour of its current algorithm, it was met with backlash. Users now have to scroll through a feed ranked on what the algorithm calculates they’ll like best, personalized by profiles they follow and content they interact with regularly – as well as using past behaviours to predict what is important to the user.
However, the algorithmic feed has often paid off for brands and businesses! Because the feed is personalized to each user, your business or brand is more likely to generate leads from loyal followers.
If the “Latest Posts” feature comes to fruition, identifying your follower’s habits and learning when they’re online will become crucial to when you publish your posts.
Digging through Instagram’s analytics will give you some insight. Hootsuite wrote a blog and created a tutorial on how to use Instagram’s insight.
Content is King
Algorithms and app development aside, the most important thing your brand or business can do to keep followers engaged is to consistently create quality content!
