In December 2021, Instagram announced that it will be reintroducing chronological feeds to its users.

Instagram’s CEO Adam Mosseri took to Twitter to announce the testing feed changes, explaining that the update will give users the option to choose between chronological or algorithm-based orders. Throughout the course of the coming months, users can opt to switch between three different feeds: Home, Favorites and Following.

The function is currently being tested in select regions before access is given worldwide.

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“We think it’s important that you can get to a chronological feed, if you’re interested, quickly and see the latest that has been posted by the accounts that you follow,” Mosseri tweeted. While the Home option will allow things to look just as they are, the Favorites option “list of accounts that [they] want to make sure [they] don’t miss things from,” while Following will show posts in standard chronological order according to times they were posted.

According to Mosseri, the “full experience” will be available by “the first half of the year.” Moreover, Moressi noted that Instagram will be honing most of its focus on videos and Reels content, according to Engadget. In a year-end message to his followers, the Instagram CEO made a video revealing the social media platform’s priorities for 2022.

“We’re going to have to rethink what Instagram is because the world is changing quickly and we’re going to have to change with it,” he noted referring to video and short digestible content. In noticing that videos have been in high demand for the platform, Mosseri said that Instagram will “consolidate all of our video products around Reels and continue to grow that product.” Have you noticed that the IGTV function has been removed? That’s because the feature has been swapped to “bring longer-form videos into the main feed” and users will now need to tap on the Reels to access the full video, according to Engadget.

Furthermore, Instagram will be creating more monetization opportunities for its creators by expanding budgets and commercials as well as turning its focus to more positive messaging for a safe online community. More updates include sensitive content controls, hiding like counts, and even currently testing Instagram story likes.

By the last quarter of 2021, Instagram became the top app by downloads, as reported by TechCrunch. Since TikTok’s ban in India, this left an open spot for Instagram to climb to the top of the downloads list, allowing it to have “its best quarter since at least 2014, with app installs up 10% over Q3.”

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