Instagram’s ‘Latest Posts’ is closest you may get to the old chronological feed

Facebook-owned Instagram switched to the chronological feed to an algorithm-driven feed in 2016. Since then, Instagram users have time and again demanded the company to bring the chronological feed or at least give an option to do so. Evidently, this hasn't happened so far. A new report, however, suggests Instagram may have finally figured out a fix for this.

Jane Manchun Wong, who reverse engineers apps to discover hidden features in apps, revealed Instagram is working on something called 'Latest Posts'. She cautioned that the feature does sound like the sought after chronological feed but it's not the same. Wong added the 'Latest Posts' feed is meant for "catching up feed posts."

The screenshot attached with her tweet shows a notification prompt which calls the user to "get caught up on the posts" from their friends. A "Welcome Back" precursor hints the feature is likely to be visible when someone opens the app after a certain time gap.

Alexandru Voica, a member of Facebook's communication team, revealed that the feature was part of an early prototype tried out at the company's hackathon. He also clarified that the company has no intention of launching the feature anytime sooner.

"Another great find, thanks for sharing it. For those who are keen to know how this was developed, it's an early prototype from a recent hackathon (a Facebook tradition). It is not available to anyone publicly, and we have no plans to test or launch it at this time," he wrote quoting Wong's tweet.

That said, Instagram has been working to improve its algorithm for the home feed. Some of the recent updates include suggestions for friends to be unfollowed or muted and removing the IGTV button on the top. Despite the changes and improvements, users have demanded the company to restore the chronological feed.

Vishal Shah, Instagram's VP of product, last year said that users should "give up" on the chronological feed. "It is just good for the ecosystem and it keeps the platform simple," he said at an event in Mumbai last year.