Instagram will roll out the Facebook sorting we love to hate
It will soon prioritize photos like Facebook does posts.
Don't look now, but Instagram is about to borrow a page from its owners at Facebook. The image-focused social network has revealed that it'll soon re-order photos and videos to show the content that it believes you'll "care about the most," much like Facebook prioritizes the News Feed. It'll weigh the priority of those pictures based on your relationship with a given person, the "timeliness" of the post and the content. If a friend caught footage from a late-night concert, for example, it shouldn't be buried underneath the wave of "what I had for breakfast" posts in the morning.
The feature won't appear until sometime in the "coming months," and Instagram stresses that it'll pay attention to feedback in the process. Only a small percentage of users will notice it at first.
It's a big gamble. Prioritizing posts could help Instagram keep occasional users, who may stop using the app if they don't see their friends' big moments. However, this might annoy die-hard users who want to see everything the moment it happened -- especially since there's no mention of a way to opt out. Remember how Twitter users panicked at the thought of the social network showing tweets out of order? Instagram may well need to take extra steps like this to continue growing at a breakneck pace, but there's a real risk that it'll alienate its most vocal supporters.
