If Instagram had its way, you would be scrolling through its millions of posts for hours on end. Unfortunately, you follow a set number of users and decide whos pictures you want to see.
Instagram found a way of changing the algorithm to keep you scrolling endlessly through pictures, even those who you don't follow.
Recommended For You
While you scroll through your Instagram feed, you may now see posts of people that you don't follow. These posts are labeled "Recommended For You" by Instagram. Three to five recommended posts will appear in the feed, according to TechCrunch.
Instagram already shows you recommended posts that are recommended for you. If you head to search tab on Instagram, you may notice that it already populated with posts under the search bar titled "Explore." These posts are recommended for you based on your likes.
In a help page, Instagram states that the "posts are suggested based on posts liked by accounts you follow." Another highlight of the post is that if you don't like this new feature, you can always choose to hide it. The only problem is that the help post says that you can "temporarily hide" these posts, so will we have to constantly hide this feature after its re-enabled by Instagram?
Changing Feed
This is one of the first major overhauls to Instagram's feed since it changed from a chronological order to an order based on an algorithm. Another time that the feed saw a large change was when ads were introduced seamlessly into the feed.
Instagram's other recent changes include the ability to follow hashtags. To introduce more content to its users, Instagram now lets you follow specific hashtags without having to follow the people who are posting under these tags.
As always, every time there is a major change in the way an app works, there is major backlash to the new functionality. People took to Twitter to voice their displeasure with the "Recommended for You" feature.
@instagram YOU CANNOT JUST SWITCH MY FINSTA HOME FEED TO RECOMMENDED POSTS BY MY PEERS WHILE I AM IN THE MIDDLE OF A RAPID FIRE LIKING SPREE.
— Katy (@katymylaady) December 27, 2017
Not a fan of @instagram 's recommended and suggested accounts that appear in my feed. If I wanted that I'd just go to Discover. Pls. — mingy (@mingasaur) December 26, 2017
I don’t even see 75% of the people I’m following posts but now @Instagram is sticking “recommended posts” in my feed. Unreal
— Ryan M-HO HO-eau (@ryanthemermaid) December 26, 2017
If you thought that you would be missing out on your friends' posts, this may make it even harder to find them. Besides Instagram determining which of your friend's posts are worthy of being seen, it now injects stranger's posts into your feed. Including the word "temporary" in the ability to hide this feature may preclude from trouble once the feature is re-enabled on its own.
