Instagram has become the latest social media platform to cede control of user feeds to the robots.
The Facebook-owned photo sharing service will begin testing an algorithm-based feed that will show users what Instagram believes they “care about the most,” rather than presenting content in reverse chronological order.
Instagram claims the change is needed because users miss 70% percent of the content in their feeds.
“The order of photos and videos in your feed will be based on the likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting and the timeliness of the post,” Instagram said in a blog post. “We’re focusing on optimizing the order — all the posts will still be there, just in a different order.”
Facebook’s purchase of Instagram in 2012 probably made the switch to an algorithm inevitable. Facebook helped pioneer the practice of showing users personalized content, and was among the first platforms to introduce an algorithm-based feed.
Twitter has in recent weeks also moved away from a strictly reverse chronological feed, and is now showing users popular content that surfaced since they last logged into the service.
As typically happens when substantial changes are made to a social media platform, users displayed a certain amount of outrage in response to Instagram’s announcement.
“Dear @instagram – pleeeeeeease don’t move us to an algorithm-based feed. Thanks, the universe of currently happy IG users,” on user said.
“I do NOT want an algorithm for my feed!” said another user, who used the hashtag #RIPInstagram.
