If you’re an avid Instagrammer, there’s a good chance that its recent news caused you to momentarily hyperventilate. On March 15 Instagram announced that it is planning on making some changes to the way its users view their photos — and people sort of freaked out.
What exactly was all the panic about, you ask? Well, to be honest, nothing —at least not yet. However, if you’ve got cold sweats just thinking about the unknown, there’s really no need to panic because we’ve got you covered. Here you will find six bits of information you need to know about the upcoming changes.
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1. The changes haven’t happened yet. They are still being tested in very small groups, and it will take weeks and possibly months before the new changes roll out.
2. Instagram has said that it will let its users know when exactly these changes are going to happen, so they aren’t coming like a thief in the night.
3. Users’ feeds are no longer going to be in the reverse chronological order that they are currently in. Instead, they will be based on algorithms that take into account timeliness and the user’s interests (i.e. things they typically double tap).
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4. The order in which users will see pictures and videos will be based on the likelihood that others will be interested in the content and will also take into account the relationship we have with the person posting.
5. Instagram is making these changes because it has become so busy with so many users. Since Instagram has become so big, many of its users are missing out on some of the photos and videos (70 percent according to them) they would most like to see because of timing — these new changes will fix that and optimize the order of the things we’d most like to view.
6. Our old posts aren’t going anywhere. They are, however, going to be in a different order once the changes take effect.
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In a blog post on the company’s website, Instagram has said that it is taking the time to get this right and that they are open to the feedback of its users. So there you have it, Instagram lovers — you can breathe now.
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