Instagram has today officially started rolling out its “You’re All Caught Up” feature after previously testing it out with a limited number of users back in May.
Instagram received a good amount of criticism when it moved away from a chronological feed back in 2016. One of the main complaints was that an algorithm-based feed encourages mindless browsing and confusion about what posts are new or unseen.
Today, Instagram has announced that it is bringing the “You’re All Caught Up” feature to all iOS and Android users in an effort to create a more straightforward user experience.
Notably, Instagram didn’t share exactly how the new feature works. Some have wondered whether the algorithm still plays a role with the You’re All Caught Up message, or if it literally means you’ve seen every post from all users you follow in the two-day time period.
Just last month, the social media service said it’s not considering a chronological feed and detailed how the current algorithm-based feed works:
- Interest: How much Instagram predicts you’ll care about a post, with higher ranking for what matters to you, determined by past behavior on similar content and potentially machine vision analyzing the actual content of the post.
- Recency: How recently the post was shared, with prioritization for timely posts over weeks-old ones.
- Relationship: How close you are to the person who shared it, with higher ranking for people you’ve interacted with a lot in the past on Instagram, such as by commenting on their posts or being tagged together in photos.
Instagram is a free download from the App Store.
