A Chronological Feed Rewards Whoever Posts the Most
When Instagram tested newest first as the default, people used the app less and liked it less.
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career · The rise of taste, human authenticity and judgment in an AI world | Adam Mosseri (Head of IG)Newest first sounds like the fairest way to run a social feed. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, says it fails for a simple reason. It rewards whoever posts the most.
The rule in a purely chronological feed is easy to understand. Whatever was posted last sits at the top. That creates a clear incentive for everyone who posts. If you want to stay visible, post constantly, because each new post briefly puts you in front of every follower.
That incentive does not affect everyone equally. A large publisher like the New York Times can publish 50 things a day. Your best friend might post once a week. Put both in the same newest first feed, and the friend quickly disappears under a flood of professional content.
Mosseri compares designing a feed to designing a city. You cannot just set the mechanics and walk away. You have to ask what behavior those mechanics encourage, how people will act on that encouragement, and what the neighborhood looks like after they do.
There is a second problem. The most recent post is often not the most interesting one. Recency is an important clue to what you want to see, Mosseri says, but it is not the only clue. He offers a test. Your sister got engaged last night, while you were asleep because she lives in another time zone. Your brother posted a sandwich this morning. Which photo should come first?
Instagram has tried chronological as the default, and the answer was not close. Use went down, and so did satisfaction. People who chose it might enjoy it at first, Mosseri says, but after months of getting buried in less interesting posts, large surveys show they like Instagram less.
The takeaway is that every feed has rules, and the rules shape who wins. A ranked feed is an attempt to balance when something was posted with whether you will care about it, so the loudest poster does not automatically beat your friends.
Questions people ask
Can I still see Instagram in chronological order if I want to?
Yes. Instagram offers a Following view that shows posts from accounts you follow in reverse chronological order, alongside the main ranked feed and a Favorites view for selected accounts. You have to choose it each time, though, since the main feed remains ranked by default.
How does Instagram decide what goes first instead?
It predicts what you are likely to enjoy or interact with, based on your past behavior, your relationship with the poster, and signals about the post itself, with recency as one signal among many. That prediction is why a day old post from a close friend can outrank an hour old post from an account you rarely open.
Why don't frequent posters dominate the ranked feed too?
Ranking considers interest, not just timing, and it also spreads out posts so one account does not take over your screen. A publisher can still appear often if you engage with it a lot, but posting 50 times a day does not guarantee 50 top spots the way it would in a chronological feed.