The whispers were loud in December 2021 that the old-fashioned chronological feed on Instagram is coming back. Some creators were delighted about this, some were concerned. But now, Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri clears the air by announcing on his Instagram that we will have 3 feed options to pick from. The main goal: more control of the time we spend on the app.
Here a quick overview on how the new three feed options will look like:
1. Home
The first feed option will be the “home” and current feed. It will show ranked content that Instagram thinks the user would enjoy.
2. Following
The second feed will be the chronological one, showing updates of all accounts ordered by time. This takes users back to the beginning of Instagram.
3. Favourites
And finally, favourites is for preferred accounts of family, friends, and favourite content creators, so users do not miss any updates.
Users can switch between these feeds to get all updates.These new functions are already on a test run and will be rolled out to everyone in the first half of 2022.
What does that mean for brands and creators?
If an account is in all 3 categories, the chances that posts are seen and interacted with are much higher than now. However, if users prefer to only have friends and family in their favourites and only use this feed for their daily consumption, some accounts might miss out. Nevertheless, these 3 feeds give accounts the chance of higher engagement and impressions. Especially the last feed, if used strategically, can be an advantage. It will be exciting to see how this will be analysed in the future.
Another aspect is that the time slot for posting is crucial, again due to the chronological feed. When are followers online? What day is the best one for posts? That means it is time to upgrade posting strategies.
