Instagram brings back the chronological feed
Users have waited six long years for the feature's return. Now it's back and better—in some ways—than ever.
After a six-year absence, Instagram is bringing back a chronological feed—or, at least, giving you a way to view one. Once you’ve updated to the latest version of the app, here’s how to get it.
Following & Favorites
If you’re one of the 16 people in the world who likes Instagram’s algorithmic feed (I counted), don’t worry—it isn’t going anywhere. When you open the app, it will still be the first thing you see.
Instead, Instagram is offering two additional feeds that are sorted in chronological order:
- “Following,” which is all the posts from everyone you follow.
- “Favorites,” which is only the posts from specific accounts you choose.
How to see Instagram’s chronological feed
Related: How to post multiple photos on Instagram
To see all your friends’ Instagram posts in chronological order, open the app and then tap Instagram in the top left.
From the dropdown select Following to see recent posts from everyone you follow, and Favorites to see recent posts from people on your favorites lists.
How to add people to your Favorites list
I think Favorites is actually the killer feature here. I follow way too many accounts on Instagram as it is! Since you’re limited to 50 favorites (who also show up higher in your main feed), this seems like a great way to cut through some of the cruft and only see the accounts you really want to see.
To add someone to your Favorites list, tap Instagram then Favorites then the Stars icon in the top right.
(The first time you try it, you can also tap Manage Favorites directly from the first dropdown.)
When you’re setting up your favorites, Instagram will automatically suggest a handful of the people you interact with a lot. Tap Remove if you don’t want them added to the list, or use search to find friends and tap Add to add them.
Then tap Confirm Favorites.
Now tap Instagram and then Favorites to see the latest posts from your favorite accounts.
(Note: People aren’t notified when you add or remove them from your Favorites.)
Can I make Following or Favorites the default?
Nope, Meta still loves the algorithm so it’s not going anywhere (and in the announcement it hinted it was going to add more recommended content to your feed). Following and Favorites have to stay two taps away—at least for the time being.
