Instagram will bring back a version of its timeline

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(Pocket-lint) – Instagram plans to bring back its timeline feed next year, according to a company official, who spoke to U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday during a Senate hearing on Instagram and Teen Safety.

“We are currently working on a version of a timeline feed that we hope to launch next year,” said Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram. He confirmed that the company has been working on the feature “for months”. Instagram then clarified in a tweet that it’s not about putting everyone on a timeline flow – something he stopped using about five years ago. Instead, it’s about “creating new options” and “providing people with more choices”.

We want to be clear that we’re creating new options – giving people more choices so they can decide what’s best for them – without bringing everyone back to a chronological flow. You can expect more on this early next year!

– Instagram Communications (@InstagramComms) December 8, 2021

This is a huge reversal for Instagram and Mosseri, who claimed last summer in a blog post that a chronological feed made it “impossible for most people to see everything, let alone all the posts they are interested in.” Mosseri even said that Instagram’s use of the timeline feed caused many users to miss posts from the accounts they were following. “In 2016, people were missing 70% of all their posts in the thread,” Mosseri said.

Instagram has yet to share any additional details on how its new version of a timeline feed works, or how it might prevent users from missing out on posts they might actually want to see. But Mosseri said the company “is targeting the first quarter of next year” for a launch.

Meanwhile, Instagram is in the hot seat and is currently answering questions from Congress about how its algorithms rank and suggest content, especially for teens and young users. Lawmakers have also considered ways to potentially regulate “malicious” algorithms.

Written by Maggie Tillman. Originally published on December 9, 2021.